We are in a very depressed situation. We are on hunger strike since 6 or 7 days. The purpose of our hunger strike is to reach our voice, but the staff in the detention centre are saying that even if you are on hunger strike your voice won’t reach. After visiting the mental and psychological doctor they sent reports to the home office, but they say you are not having any mental illness and accordingly they are refusing us. While most of the people here are suffering so many struggles during their journey to the UK, and this is not logical actually, that the home office are refusing the reports of the doctor.

I have not had an appointment with the doctor – it was supposed to be today but the interpreter was not available so they have postponed to this afternoon. When I reached the detention centre I told them I have sinus and colon problem and they hadn’t brought medicine, just yesterday they brought the medicine. And they told me I have to take the medicine with food and they told me I have to eat in order to take the medicine, but I am on hunger strike.

Even our voice was not accepted by the Home Office officer. We have conducted an interview with a Home Office officer in the detention centre and we explained to him the pain, the assaults, all the struggles during our stay in Europe. And they said this is not our business, this is not our issue and you need to discuss this with your solicitor, they are not bothered. And they need to hear our voice. I’m wondering why the Home Office did not hear our full story, our full suffering from the struggles and the pain that we thought and felt during our journey in France and Spain, and all the countries that we passed through.

They just met us very briefly in Dover and took a very quick screening, a very quick interview with us, and gave us a ticket. How come they are removing us? They need to hear our story.

When we tried to add a comment to our interview with the Home Office officer, they are not giving us any opportunity to do that. There are many attempted suicides from people inside the detention centre.

When I reached the detention centre I told them that I have a phobia of narrow places, and they have delayed my appointment so many times. Now my appointment was supposed to be in the morning and they have delayed it to the afternoon, and I’m afraid this is happening to so many people and I’m afraid that they are delaying the reports for the sake of removing me. I’m afraid that I am not fit to travel.

We need the people, the Home Office, to hear us, to hear our story. Yes, we have a fingerprint in Spain but the asylum system there is very poor. They have thrown us in the street. We were blackmailed from the human traffickers, we were assaulted by the police officers in Spain, we don’t want to go back because we were in a very difficult situation in Spain. It’s not a country that we are welcomed in. We are not able to live in a country that’s not protecting our human rights, we already fled from Yemen that has a lot of violations and war and its own struggle we are looking for a safe country that gives us new opportunities to live and gives us new life. This is not found in Spain. How come are we going back to Spain?

I came from Ecuador to Spain in transit. They forced me to fingerprint and they put me in detention for 9 days, although I told them I have a phobia for narrow places. They psychologically tortured me for 9 days and then threw me on the street.

After they released us from the detention centre and the airport we found ourselves on the street and we stayed 2 days in a shelter with no homes and no accommodation, until we found an Arabic man who took us temporarily in his home. And he told us to go to a person in Belgium who is welcoming us into his accommodation.

Most of the detainees inside the detention centre want the people to hear their stories, their struggles, and what they are suffering. We came to the UK because we believe the UK is the right country, where we can protect our human rights, and we are having a high expectation that the Uk government will consider our cases. After the struggles we faced in Spain we prefer to die in UK rather than going back. I told the Home Office that I’d prefer to die here rather than going to Spain again.

I fled Yemen because I was tortured by the Houithi regime. I was not able to complete my study. They fired me from the university and I was assaulted by this regime. We came from our country that is facing the most massive humanitarian crisis in modern history to find a safe place. I was not able to find it in Spain, the first country I went to and so I came to find it in the UK.

I’m looking for a new life. I’m looking to merge with the British community, serve the British community, be having a new life with new opportunities, reunion with my family.

Since we reached we felt that we are in our country. We are in safe hands, and we are ready to defend them, to defend England with ourselves. Our house is destroyed, we don’t have any things in Yemen so far. We lose our families, we lose our assets, we lose everything and we came here looking for new life and new opportunity.

Yemen is already in a crisis and the humanitarian situation is struggling. There is a lot of poverty, starvation, war violence. People are not able to find food, drink water, clean water, the diseases are everywhere; cholera, covid-19 and other new diseases. People cannot get a treatment; the health system totally collapsed, the country now is not any more a country. The people there are dying and nobody there is helping them.

The devastating outcomes of this war made many Yemenis flee to other countries and as a Yemeni refugee in the UK – I found its my dream to come here.

My mum and family are suffering from several diseases and they haven’t got any treatment so far.

The smugglers actually cheated me, I was supposed to travel to the UK but they sent me to Spain rather than going to the UK. The smuggler forced me to travel to Spain and there is no opportunities. In the beginning you know I was planning to go to the UK but the smuggler forced me to travel to Spain and I said if it is a safe country I don’t mind. I wanna start my life, my plan is to start a new life, a safe life.