Thread by @EverydaySexism

My name is Agnes. I am an asylum seeker, I am a woman, I am a human being.

Please share my story using #SetHerFree

I had spent 55 years of my life in my country, but then I was forced to come to the UK. I never expected to leave my country – I love my country, I had a job, I was married. But I was forced to come here to save my life.

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In November 2010, my country descended into civil war and in 2011, the rebels won the war. I was arrested and taken to prison with the President and his family. The UN released some prisoners and I was among them.

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I fled to avoid to be arrested again, or tortured, or even killed. Many of my friends and fellow party members were killed.

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I came to the UK with a visa, because two of my children were already living here and I used to visit them and then go back. When my visa had nearly expired, I went to see the Home Office in Croydon for advice.

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I didn’t know that it would be so hard to seek asylum. I went through the system for nearly 8 years. During these years, the Home Office took me from city to city. I was on my own far from my relatives and it was a hard time for me.

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And from there they took me to detention, because the solicitor who was working on my case didn’t do it properly. I stayed in Yarl’s Wood for 3 months.

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Yarl’s Wood is a terrible place. Every day you are scared that they will take you to the airport and send you to your death. Three times they took me to the airport to take me back to the country I fled. I was always asking myself, what will happen to me tomorrow?

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Yarl’s Wood is a prison. I don’t know why they don’t want to call it a prison, because that is what it is. You have to eat at a certain time, you have to go your room at a certain time, you are locked in.

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But I didn’t do anything bad, I just came to claim asylum because I was scared to be killed or tortured in my country. I don’t know why they lock up people who fled violence, persecution, torture. They need security and safety.

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And you don’t know when you will be released. I met people who were there for many, many months, or even years. When I got in there they didn’t tell me that I would be held there for three months.

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In other prisons they say if you have good behaviour your sentence will be half of what is planned, but in Yarl’s Wood you just don’t know when you will get out. I was always worried that they would take me back to my country and what would happen.

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If the people who make the decision to put us in detention would put themselves in our shoes, I think that would change something.

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.@sajidjavid should go to Yarl’s Wood. To meet the ladies who have nowhere to go. To talk to people. To see what they see, to see what it is doing to their minds. We are people, not numbers. We left our families because of persecution; we came to seek safety.

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.@sajidjavid has to go and talk to people. If he doesn’t go there he will not see what people are going through. He needs to see the evidence of what detention does to people.

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We need to build a fairer asylum process for women, and the first step is to end detention.

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The second thing is not to make people destitute. I meet a lot of young women who are put in very dangerous situations because they have no home and no money. Allow us to work, because we have a lot of skills.

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In August last year, I got my refugee status after nearly 8 years. During that time I was not allowed to work. I could not go to college. I had to report to the Home Office once a week.

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Now I have a new fight to find a job, but I hope I will find something useful to do. & I am still volunteering for @HopeProjectsWM, which I have done for 5yrs. Because what has kept me going is the support I have from other women, & which I want to give back to other women.

Thank you for reading my story.

My message is: Let us be part of society, let us be free, let us have hope.

#SetHerFree