Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Sunday, 29 April 2007

I had been invited to a performance of Asylum Monologues, an organisation where actors give extracts from personal testimonies of asylum seekers in the UK. It is the words of real people relating their experiences, performed by actors. I was there to represent the citizens of Stockton, so I will tell you what I heard.

They started by recalling an event locally earlier in the year on January 26th when they gave a performance, and talked of the reaction and the interaction afterwards. They said that on February 14th one of the organisers was handcuffed in front of his wife and children whilst signing on, in a local town and sent to a detention centre for a month before being released home. They said that the lady who had provided the refreshments had had her door broken down at dawn and been arrested to be sent back to the Congo. Neither had done anything wrong.

Then the performance. Please read on.

A young man spoke of his life in Zimbabwe. How he had been made to join a youth battalion, and had been branded with a swastika on his chest. The pain had been searing, but the shame remained with him. Why the swastika ? because Mugabe was following in the steps of Adolf Hitler. The young man told how he had been made to harass, burn homes down and was supposed to kill. How he could not bear that. How he had witnessed a pregnant woman have a burning log thrown at her stomach, her clothes caught fire, and she and her unborn child died. He told of how he had to escape, and the difficulty in doing this to Malawi.

A young woman told of the horrific treatment she had had in Jamaica. How her 5 year old daughter was killed in front of her.

Another from Rwanda told of the 30 members of her family that were killed and how she was persecuted.

All of these atrocities were a long way away from here.

They then told the story of how they were received by authorities when they arrived in this country. The way they were spoken to, how they were treated.

We heard of the conditions in the detention centres and the treatment there. We heard from the speakers how the Zimbabwe young man was dragged onto a plane to take him back, and only released because the air hostess refused to fly with him in that condition. How he found later that his deportation had been halted before this, and there had been no need to drag him onto the plane.

There were other stories like this. Not a long way away from here.

It was so clear that all of those who "spoke" only wanted to be safe, to literally seek asylum. They had committed no crime. They wanted to positively contribute to our society here, until it was safe to return home. They could not understand how anyone would think they were only here to collect benefits, it had cost some over £10,000 to be able to get here to be safe, and would they do that for £40 a week benefits ?

At the end we were told that in the town that the Congolese people were returned to in February, because it was now safe to do so, 2,000 people had been killed this year.

At the end I was choked, but I was there as Mayor and needed to listen to people. A group told me that of the 7 of them, 4 had been interviewed for the monologues.

The determination and spirit of a group, some of whom had been accepted to stay in this country, some who were waiting for results of appeals, showed through. They were Kurdish, and wanting to work with Kurds from any country, wanting to help them to integrate with the rest of our society, wanting to welcome with open arms people of all nationalities to their events. Their group was called Nawroz, which means "new year" meet in Middlesbrough, and showed such a spirit of hope.

I am just reporting what happened today. Will tomorrow ever be the same.