RAISING OUR ASYLUM RIGHTS

RESISTING RACISM IN HOTELS

The packed event at the friends meeting house in Manchester was introduced by, Meeting Chair, Dr Rhetta Moran, RAPAR (Refugee Asylum Participatory Action Research)

The first speaker was, Shay Bebagar Murad who spoke about fleeing to this country from Balochistan. A country in the middle of a warzone. Last September 79 Baloch were killed in just one day in the city of Zahidan.

Since he has been in this country, Bebagar has been the victim of racial abuses, assaults and theft.

We were then shown videos of his arrest. He was arrested simply for speaking out against abuses.

Next to speak was, Ali who is a journalist and a member of: the international federation of journalists, the Kurdish journalists syndicate and the NUJ. Ali is waiting for his main asylum interview. Until recently he was living in a “serco” run hotel. Serco are a private firm who, according to, sharecast.com, in the year to the end of December 2022,their underlying trading profit was up 4% at £237m.

Ali says about their service “it is difficult to live in an hotel. The food served to me was bad so me and about 70 other people constantly called migrant help and complained. Each time they said the food would improve but it did not.”

Ali continued to complain and was told by the serco manager that “I was putting the hotel at risk and it would adversely affect my case if I do something like this again.”

Ali ended his speech by saying “endless thanks to the UK for protecting our life. We left behind our loved ones and all our beautiful memories. We reached this country with a destroyed psychology. Please help us correct our psychology and live like normal people.”