Stories

A victim of torture back in his home country while living in a war zone and being wrongly accused of being a member of a militant organisation, Sachin fled to the UK 17 years ago to claim asylum and live his life without fear. After arriving in London, Sachin was given Humanitarian Protection, legally worked for a number of years running his own businesses, and found friends and a partner. But in 2014 his permission to stay was revoked. He no longer had the right to work, couldn’t afford to rent anymore, and his life fell apart.

Over the past two years we have supported Sachin to get back on his feet and start a new life. We helped him to get off the streets and into safe housing, access our foodbank, and have given him financial support, a bike, a laptop, and phone credit. We found him a new, reputable legal aid lawyer to work with him on his fresh application to remain in the country. He now has a volunteer role at the centre and thrives in a support network of friends that he can count on for emotional and practical support.

The family suddenly had to escape their hometown after threats from gangs and lost everything. Dori was exhausted from anxiety while struggling to survive on only £8 per week from the Home Office, and her children were subdued and had lost the ability to interact with others. The mother had no idea that the children had the option of going to school.

For the past few months we have supported Dori and her family to rebuild their confidence and trust in others, understand their rights as asylum seekers, and find friendship and respite in the West London Welcome community. Our volunteers slowly helped bring Dori’s children out of their shells and learn to laugh again, playing football with them outside and supporting them at our Children’s space.

“Before we found WLW my 9 year old son could not make eye contact with anyone and he was very angry. Now he is at school and we have good accommodation and better food, he smiles brightly and that gives me such peace.”

We found the family an experienced legal aid lawyer, helped to move them into better housing and give them new clothes, and provided them with fresh, nutritious food as they had been struggling to eat the unhealthy food given them at the hotel. The children enrolled in school and are thriving, and Dori has bonded with other mothers at our centre and has started taking English classes. Dori has told us that finding West London Welcome was like “finally seeing a light along a very dark and difficult road – thank you very much to all of you.”

They found me a host family, helped get me a flat, and introduced me to youth charities where I met friends and became a youth leader. They enrolled me in college to improve my English. Anytime I need help they are there for me and if they can’t help they put me in touch with others who can. Before my interview with the Home Office I was very anxious, so they sent a nice volunteer with me to the interview and that really made me calm down and relax.

Last month I finally got a positive decision on my asylum claim from the Home Office which means I have the right to work and begin my life. I don’t think I could have got refugee status without West London Welcome’s help. My life is so busy now – I’m doing acting, music, and every week I volunteer at the day centre. Everything positive in my life started with West London Welcome.

In 2022 Masoumeh fled Iran. Today she is one of our wonderful core volunteers who we are currently supporting through the new refugee homelessness crisis. Here is her story.

Like many other Iranians, Masoumeh and her husband had to flee Iran last year for their safety. After arriving in London, Masoumeh and her husband were housed in a series of different Home Office hotels, suddenly moved from one to the other by the Home Office at a moment’s notice with little explanation. In these hotels they were not allowed to cook, taking away what Mausomeh felt was the little dignity and choice cooking would have given them in their everyday lives. Instead, they lived on microwaved meals given to them by the hotel and on their small weekly £9.10 Home Office allowance. Her husband has a stomach condition and the hotel food given to them often had little nutrition, greatly affecting his physical and mental health.

West London Welcome stepped in to support Masoumeh and her husband, supporting them to navigate incredibly poor Home Office housing conditions. While staying in a local asylum hotel, the couple were able to access our fresh groceries and hot lunches each week, improving their diets. They joined our English classes, creative activities and trips, making new friends from Iran and across the world, expanding their social networks and giving them the vital friendship and community they needed to regain hope and escape the isolation of their tiny hotel room. Both Masoumeh and her husband became volunteers at our centre, cooking up delicious Iranian food in our kitchen and helping around the centre.

In September 2023, Masoumeh and her husband finally received their refugee status – something that would normally be worthy of huge celebration.

But as with all asylum seekers granted refugee status, they were given only 28 days’ notice to leave their asylum accommodation and find themselves a job, Universal Credit, and somewhere else to live. After approaching the council for support, the council told them they didn’t have capacity to house them because they didn’t have any particular vulnerabilities, and the couple found themselves suddenly on the brink of homelessness.

Having been banned from working or receiving benefits while seeking asylum, the couple had no savings for a deposit or credit history, and had no connections with spare rooms. It is almost impossible for refugees to find landlords willing to accept housing benefit and enter the private rental market. Due to the thousands of asylum decisions being made by the government, councils and charities are scrambling to find people accommodation and there simply aren’t enough affordable rooms out there for people to live in. People are going from their asylum hotels straight to the street after being granted refugee status, unless they have a caseworker at a charity like ours supporting them.

That’s when we reached out to our amazing volunteer community. The couple are currently being hosted by a kind host who has been able to offer them a free room, while our advice team works with Masoumeh and her husband to find a longer-term housing solution. 

In the future, Masoumeh wants to study medicine, and we can’t wait to help her make this happen. For now, while she and her husband work out their next steps, her voluntary work is essential to the weekly running of our community centre – she devotes much of her time to West London Welcome community members and friends, from organising food and clothes donations to cooking her famously tasty Iranian recipes.