I came to the UK by myself, by plane in November. My children arrived in the UK by small boats. They struggled hard to get here. They were in Spain and then went to Holland, and they me a man took them to Calais. They tried twice to take a dingy and it capsized, and they had to go back. Finally, it got to Dover. I requested that they would be placed with me. In July, they gave us a family residence in Manchester – they gave them ID cards, they had applied to university. And then on Friday the officers came to collect them and took them to Brook House.

It has been really hard. My sons have a lot of anxiety and depression. They are not eating and sleeping. I try to tell them not to let this situation consume them. But one of my sons is just crying. It just felt that their dreams were about to happen and then they were taken away. As a Dad, any time I see their clothes in the house, I also cry.

We came to this country expecting the UK to care about humanity, that there would be less racism here. The reality is so different. They have destroyed our family and they have destroyed my sons’ future.

When the officers came to our house, they treated us as if we were criminals. They barged into the house. They put my sons in separate cars so they couldn’t be together. They didn’t let me say goodbye.  There was no need for them to come in and be so aggressive like this.

Thank you for making me believe that there is some humanity left in this country.