Early December 2006

I walk into the Unity office and am struck by the new furniture arrangement. Because of the leaking roof the desks and computers have been moved to the back and the sofa is now by the door leaving empty floor under the missing roof tiles. I walk in and I go onto the computer. I want to email someone I met about an organisation that supports refugee academcs. I want to see if they can campaign or be beneficiaries for young people who are seeking asylum and have places at university that they are not permitted to take up.

A man comes in to pick up some leaflets for a meeting that has been called for people to organise to prevent dawn raids. We are chatting about how many leaflets he needs when the door bursts open and two women and a baby in a pushchair come flying in. One woman throws herself on the sofa weeping and the other woman stands over her talking.

“Don’t give in to this, stay strong, don’t cry in front of your child, don’t let him see you like this, don’t make room for sadness.”

She continues crying.

“I’m tired of this life, so tired.”

“Don’t use your mouth to say those words, come through this so your son won’t have to.”

“I worked so hard to come here, so hard to get away, the things I did. I’m so tired, so tired. I take the money they give me but a strong girl like me, I could work, I could contribute to this country but no. All the things I left, I pray my daughters can find food. I never saw the inside of a police station until I came here, I’d only seen a judge on tv. And now, here, for my case I see all these things. I can’t take it anymore.”

“You’re not the only one, don’t give in, me I have asthma, I’ve been here 5 years too, they say I am liable for detention too, you are not the only one, don’t give way to tears.”

The baby has started to cry, the woman on the sofa pulls him to her and gives him her breast. She quietens for a while. She passes me the papers she was given. The judge didn’t believe her story.

“You want I take these people and I take them there and I show them the people, I show them.”

She will go and see her lawyer again, to see what to do next. The tears subside to rage.

“If they come to get me I swear to god they need to bring a hearse too cos I not going with them alive, I fight and fight, I’ll pull my clothes off, I’ll bite them, I’ll do anything, they’ll regret the day they came to get me.”

She starts to cry again, she talks some more, she gets up to leave, I give her a hug, she starts crying again. She gets her baby’s clothes together and puts him in the buggy. With humour she talks to her child as if they are on holiday.

“This is our time in the UK.” She smiles and laughs with a raw edge.

“You didn’t see me like this”, she says to us as she leaves.

People come and go, sign in and sign out again. A woman comes up to me.

“I’m worried, it’s been an hour and my husband hasn’t come out yet.”

I reassure her. Tell her it is very rare for them to detain people while they are signing. It hasn’t happenned in a while.

“Is there anything that we can do?”, she says.

I say just to wait and it may be they are just taking their time. She asks for his reference number from our records because he has all their documentation and when she asks for him at the home office they won’t do anything without the number. I give her the reference number and she leaves her child with us while she goes to check.

Some new people come. A woman on her own, she has been here for one month, she has no family and no friends. She is young and she has fled a war. I take her details and tell her about a meeting she can go to to meet other people.

A man on his own who has been her since 1997 and is now being told he is liable for detention.

A journalist from the BBC calls. They are doing a programme, is there anyone who can help, are there any families who would be willing to talk, someone who could give her background information? I take her number so someone can call her back. She calls back 2 more times before I have the chance to ask anyone about it. Can they come and film at a meeting? Probably not, we’d have to ask the people at the meeting.

I go to take a walk and buy some lunch. When I get back there are more new people in the office. There has been a detention. The woman who was worried. Her husband has been taken to Dungavel and is booked on a flight in 6 days time. Friends have come to look after her, make sure that she doesn’t go home incase they come to get her and her son too. Before she was animated and active, worried, wondering what action to take. Now she is just silent with a blank face. We discuss the action we can take and her friends take her to their home.

“Do you think it is safe to go back to her house to collect some things?”

More people, I check that we have all the right details for them. Phone numbers, lawyer’s details.

Two women each with a young child come in for the first time. They go to the home office to sign together and then they fill out the contact details sheet and put each other’s names in the friends section.