'Are we not human beings, we asylum seekers?'
Note: We were passed this letter earlier this week, written by a man who is currently going through the asylum system. He asked us to publish it far and wide - we believe it is an important voice amongst the current political clamour over human rights. The letter is exactly as he has written it and has not been edited.
Asylum seekers or politicians?
Myself and my family (my wife and children) have been living a very difficult life for the last nine years (in the UK). Some of my children were born in the UK. My wife is under considerable mental pressure. She regularly takes sleeping tablets.
My parents gave me my name without even asking me. In this country I am known as an asylum seeker so that I can be identified. That too without asking me. I had no choice in choosing either name. Continuously thinking about these things has made me a patient of mental stress, currently attending appointments with a psychiatrist to help me understand who I really am, what is my true identity.
What are asylum seekers?
If I am an asylum seeker, then what are asylum seekers? And where do such people come from and how long will they keep coming? And how long will these people keep on coming and affecting local populations, be it in any country. This cannot be right for any country. This stream of people must be stopped, but before doing that, we must think who these people are and where they come from.
Do they drop down from the sky or spring up from the earth or are they washed up by the sea? Or are they manufactured in a factory? Who are these people and why do they exist? In fact, it is not just a possibility, it is actually a certainty that the politicians of the world create these people and then these politicians play with them/treat them as toys. The politicians of the countries where these people come from don’t let them survive. And the politicians of the countries where these people flee to, don’t let them live either.
How to measure our son's suffering
My son who was born here is only three years six months old. When he accompanies us to sign on at the Home Office, he stands looking in bewilderment at the staff there and does his best to protect his mother as these people conduct the security search on his mother’s person.
For us, his parents, this is always a moment of great pain. How much our son suffers at the same time, we cannot comprehend. Is this his punishment for being born in the home of an asylum seeker? If it had been in his power, perhaps he would have chosen not to have been born to asylum seeking parents.
Are we not human beings too, we asylum seekers? Who is at fault here, we asylum seekers, or the politicians of the world? Nobody of their free will wants to leave the country of their birth and their parents. Even if we should gain ‘status’, we will become people forever separated. We must now live our life, away from childhood friends and childhood memories, children, brothers and the graves of our parents.
I am human, born of this world
Over the last nine years, I have many friends and memories built up here, without which it would be difficult to now live the rest of my life. I am a human being born in this world and I demand all of the human rights of life that I am entitled to. Apart from the right of status, where else and to whom else, in which court should I go to demand all my other rights?
One day I will die, I will be finished, my case will be finished, but I have no doubt that the stream of asylum seekers will never come to an end. I am not writing to yourself or others like yourself with influence to simply assist me in my personal case, that is not my purpose. Rather you should think about this and act upon it because God has given people like yourself the opportunity and the ability to do some good for humanity and to make this a beautiful world. All we seek is our own identity, why have we become asylum seekers.
We should be called 'human balls'
In fact, we should be called human balls, which the politicians of the world get together and play with. God created us human beings and brought us into this world. Humans are capable of reaching the stars and planets, yet what have they done to their fellow man that has created the need for humans to be forced to seek asylum? What do we seek from the moon and other planets when we cannot make our own world beautiful?
We cannot rid the world of pain and suffering here. What is the point of stepping on the moon and other planets when we cannot reach each other’s hearts? It is the responsibility of powerful nations to create peace in weaker ones, rather than allow the creation of asylum seekers.
We seek a full and proper identity
We don’t seek simply food and shelter; rather we seek a full life and a proper identity. We don’t just seek survival and protection from death; I have seen death from so close-up that I don’t really want to live anymore. So why should I seek asylum? I am awaiting death wholeheartedly and with great impatience, but my hands are bound, I have a family to think about, otherwise I would welcome death.
If I was to live, what would be the point in a world where men kill men? Where the strong make themselves stronger by killing the weak for fear that they themselves might become weak one day? Where the strong create an artificial famine in a world where there is plenty, simply to subdue the weak/to keep them in their place?
The strong will create artificial diseases and sell medicines to treat them and become stronger and richer. In the name of religion they will kill, in the name of politics they will kill, and sometimes because they are themselves fearful they will kill. And yet after doing all these things, humans still want to go to the stars and planets. Is this what we are going to do there when we reach these stars and planets?
I want you to hear our voice
I am saying these things to you because wherever people like yourselves are in the world, I want you to hear our voice. Because I, we, all mankind are in turmoil in this world. I (mankind) are in great pain. I am dying of starvation in Africa. In Asia I am dying in the name of religion. In the Middle East, I am dying at the hands of corrupt and cruel monarchies. I am not at peace in America or Europe either.
To remove my anguish, I take sleeping tablets. Is this what lies in wait for me on other planets? What difference does it make that I was not born in the U.K.? No country belongs to anybody. I was born in this world and I have a right to speak up for the truth and reality anywhere in this world. And I can ask for anybody’s help I need. I am a human being, it is my birth right that I should be able to speak directly to influential people like you.
I am not mad but I have said these things from my heart with the help from a charity in Scotland, but there must be undoubtedly many people who do not have contact with or help from such organisations. Look around you and you will see many people like myself living an unfulfilled and incomplete life, whether they have status or not. These people will live an unfulfilled life till their dying day. So what is the sense in living or making progress in such a world?
Do you want to live in a world like this?
I do not want to live in such a world. Do you? If not, then please use the power and influence your position offers you, to instigate positive changes in the world, so people feel safe enough and can choose to stay in their home countries, with their families and friends.
When a person hurts another person deliberately, people can try and fix the injured person the best they can or help that person to heal themselves the best they can. However, nothing will change for the better until the reasons people feel they can hurt and kill fellow human beings, are understood, addressed and resolved.
For example, when a man shoots a bird, another man can try to help the injured bird to recover, but nothing will change until the people who caused the injury in the first place are helped to stop from doing so.
Yours sincerely,
Mr A
(5) Comments
Mr A has written a very emotive plea which I hope will reach the hearts of all who read it. Perhaps they will be motivated to change the conditions of asylum seekers in our community. I do hope so.
Profound evidence fron Mr A that a lack of compassion knows no borders.
Australia has almost 6 000 asylum seekers in immigration detention which was conceived as a deterrent because the nation built on immigration cannot bear the disorderly arrival of desperate potential refugees across our borders. An average of about 4 000 a year who come by leaky boat on a very risky journey are hysterically regarded as a threat to national security, to be jailed in remote places. And the detention is not only mandatory under current law but INDEFINITE. That's democratic multicultural Australia in 2011, still regarding people as commodities to be swapped and traded with Malaysia, arrogantly breaching its legal obligations under the UN Refugees Convention. Human rights don't matter. Only sport.
I am very moved by this powerful, heartfelt document and I will try to forward it to many people.
I understand your plight.
In this world the people who have all the means at their disposal who should be making things better in the world are actually making things worst in the world. The people who have financial wealth (paper money) are quite happy to boast about how much wealth they have. They do not understand that they have a responsibility with this wealth they have been given. They are suppose to use what they need for themselves and their family and all excess should be passed onto those in need.
Do they understand this, no, do they do this no, instead they boast about how much money they have. These people cannot be called RICH, because they do not understand the meaning of the word. RICH is when you have something and you know what to do with it.
The world would be a better place if the so-called RICH knew and understood what they should do with what has been given to them to care for.
Therefore if all the RICH give to those in need without holding onto the SURPLUS all those who receive the SURPLUS would use it for their need and do the same with their SURPLUS.
May we all be blessed with the understanding of giving to our fellow beings. Give in the name of HUMANITY. Wish for others what you wish for yourself and your family. Treat others the same as you wish to be treated. Respect others the same you would like to be respected.
politicians are quick to cause the situations which result in mamny people being displaced around the world and forcing them to seek asylum in another country. However, politicians are not quick to help people forced to leave their home country find refuge in another. politicans are quick to make it very difficult and on many occassions impossible for people who are displaced to live in peace and enjoy their lives.