A broken asylum system denies necessary skills: Reese's story

A broken asylum system denies necessary skills: Reese's story

After a decade-long ordeal, and years training as a nurse, trafficking survivor Reese* is still battling to be recognised as a refugee and be allowed to work in the UK.

Reese was trafficked into Ireland as a 17-year-old in 2016, shortly after escaping a traumatising past of sexual abuse in South Africa.

While waiting on her asylum application to be processed and accepted, Reese spent three years applying to universities to study nursing. Despite receiving offers though she was unable to proceed due to lack of funding.

While many people seeking asylum are able to study higher education courses, depending on certain restrictions some face, they are unable to access student loans, or the majority of financial support options, to help fund it. Coupled with being denied the right to work in many cases it can make studying at university a financial impossibility.

Finally in 2020, while still going through the asylum process, she was accepted to university to study nursing via a scholarship. Even with this, however, money remained exceptionally tight. She says, “The scholarship had an allowance of £3500 each year, and then I had to cover my own living costs and food and travel costs. Every other cost that I had, I had to pay for myself, but all they could cover was £3500 per year, which really helped me a lot because then I was living with friends and family throughout the three years of university, which helped me because I didn't then have to pay rent.”

Nursing being a placement-heavy degree, Reese had to carefully plan and budget to ensure she could get to her placements conveniently. She says, “During the six months of academics, I could afford to get a bus pass and go to university. I wasn't too far from university, so even when I was commuting from Coventry to university, it was still okay because I was living in Coventry with my mom.

And then during the placement period, where I would have to go to the hospital, I would then find a place to stay in Leicester. And then during that time, it would have to be somewhere convenient where I could travel to my placements, but because that wasn't always the case, I had to make sure that I prioritised what money I had towards my travelling costs. Because that's what I needed to get through university. If I had failed placements, I would have failed the course. So that was my main priority—to make sure that I could attend all of my placements and complete them. And so the rest was academics, and I could attend my lectures with no problem.”

Reese identifies her maternal grandmother as a key factor that helped her find her calling as a nurse. Reese’s grandmother had suffered a stroke, and Reese, then a small child, accompanied her mother to Zimbabwe to take care of her grandmother. She says, “I thought nursing would be a really good subject because I did sometimes think, or sort of put myself in my mom's shoes, where they were in a country that was less developed, with no facilities whatsoever, and, in case of an emergency, there wouldn't be anyone who would be able to assist or do anything. So I thought that it would be a good skill to have, or good training to have, just to have that background knowledge of how to save a person's life and those trying to help.”

Even having graduated and gained her nursing qualifications, Reese remains in the asylum limbo. Denied the ability to work due to her status, even while the National Health Service is desperate for nurses to work in it. Even once her claim is accepted, Reese fears that the years spent waiting will harm her career prospects: “When applying for work, they want people with experience. How do you explain being 28 years old with no work experience? So even if I wanted to start on a new chapter and think I've been granted asylum, I can now go and work. Now I'm in an interview, and it's, ‘So what's your work, your past work history? Where have you worked before?’ And 28 years old, having to explain why I've never worked. So even if I wanted a fresh start, I feel like it would still follow me, and I don't know if it's just numbers to them (Home Office) or if they actually consider that this is the number of years that someone has been in limbo.”

As Reese explains when it comes to the Home Office no reason is considered “valid enough” for asylum. “It's very painful because that's a life wasted, but it doesn't affect them, doesn't affect the Home Office or immigration because their life continues when they leave work. They can… They go to work and put everyone else's lives on pause, and then their life continues when they go home, and they go on holiday, and they do this and that, but everyone else on… Just because you're a victim of asylum and this and that, your life is on hold, and there are a lot of factors that come into play.”

When she finished her nursing degree, Reese made a fresh asylum claim at her her lawyer’s suggestion, which the Home Office rejected, asking her to relocate to South Africa with her partner. She says, “I built up a case, I went to school, I got doctor's letters, I got psychologist's letters, and everything that I did. And I submitted that. And I have confirmation as well from the national referral mechanism, stating that they believe that I am a victim of modern-day slavery.”

Reese is hopeful and acknowledges that being granted asylum can drastically change her life. “I feel that if I were granted asylum, I feel that my life would just take off. I feel like it's just a firework waiting to take off, and so I feel that I would be able to flourish, and I would feel free, as it's like being stuck in a cage. I feel like I would be free.”

Reese explains that granting asylum can help the economy. “If they were to grant us a stay in the country, we would be able to contribute to the economy by becoming taxpayers.”

She adds, “I feel like if given the opportunity, it would be great to sort of prove ourselves to say, ‘I could be an asset to this country if you allow me to.’”

*Name changed to protect identity

Photo by Kaboompics.com