The Ibis was not good. No dining room, no social space, you just go to your room….. Widnes, along with Runcorn and St Helens, is a desert for asylum seekers. It has older people, it is good for people who retire, but not for asylum seekers because we have no one there, which is why I came back to Lancaster. Even my friends who were sent to Chester, it is a nice place but they come back to Lancaster. There was one organisation giving support at a church but only for 2 hours on one day a week. One time I go and he says ‘sorry, we are very busy, can you come back next week’. It was not enough. For the food bank in Widnes I can only go 6 times in 6 months, in Lancaster Olive Branch it is every week.
I have health problems and the house in Widnes my room is upstairs but the bathroom and kitchen are downstairs. I tell my serco I have a lot of pain, I can’t go up and down stairs all the time, but he doesn’t give a hoot about anything. I told my GP in St Helens I want to go back to Lancaster and she says ‘what about London? Manchester? Cardiff has a lot of Kurdish…?’ but I say ‘no, I love Lancaster’. She wrote a letter saying ‘please, let him go back to Lancaster’. After I just ate eggs for two days to save money to buy a plant in a pot for her, I didn’t have money but she helped me. Also my house in Widnes is too far to walk to the town centre, I had to get two buses, so £2 then £2 and again to come home, £8 is too much. In Lancaster I can ride my bike or use my electric scooter.
In Widnes I wake up each day and have no plan. It is a desert for asylum seekers – look at this map and show me the charities! They are not there. And there is not much opportunity to volunteer. Often I go to a friend’s house in Runcorn or St Helen’s and sleep there, then come back.
At college I asked for a bus pass and they said no, but at Lancaster & Morecambe college he says “yes, bring me the ticket and I will give you the money”.
Lancaster is a good place because it has countryside it has villages but it also has city and town and it has people who help us.
I have problems in the house in Lancaster when I arrive, it is like a barn, very dirty, like an animal house. I have made a cleaning rota and ask the others for £2 each month to buy cleaning things. I care about the accommodation, it is my responsibility, I was a journalist in Iran.
Out of eight people I am the only one calling Migrant Help to get things fixed. I have called 30 times and now many things have been fixed: toilet fixed, outside light fixed, new washing machine, new microwave, new bathroom. When a man moved out I saw in his empty room there is mould in the wall, now that has been fixed. My previous Serco [officer] Peter was very good. I also did cutting of the plants in our garden and down the alley, one neighbour he says ‘I know you are from asylum seeker house, thank you’.
Mostly I do not find racism in Lancaster. But one time teenagers are wearing masks and throwing eggs and rubbish at our house; I call the police and the police come but the teenagers they say to the police “fuck you!”. I think they had knives inside the waist of the trousers, with a clip. But that is water under the bridge. I asked police and Migrant Help for CCTV but they say no.
Global Link has helped me in so many ways: Free clothes, ID card, Aspen card, Laptop, Sim card, bicycle, parties, Global Grooves disco, lunch Tuesday, Visit countryside, English classes, film making course with Lancaster University, football and even ping pong last year!
The other thing from Global Link is motivation to be life [motivation to live], they say “don’t give up” and encourage me, even they help me make my digital story.
After lunch sometimes Gisela talks. When I tell her about problems with rubbish and recycling she listened to me, she says ‘I agree’ and she tells everyone about it.
There are lots of opportunities to volunteer in Lancaster, but not in Widnes. In Lancaster I must wake up at 6 to check my plan, I have a meeting at 8, and then some place at 10 and at 12, maybe I come back home at 8pm. It’s good to have these things, to spend time. I volunteer with Eggcup, and with the cinema club, also on reception and interpretation at the Olive Branch and reception at Cornerstone. There is also Youth Challenge, Rotary, RVS outpatient. At Global Link I organise the clothes room and keep it clean, and sometimes I am interpreter for Iranian people. I also get help and motivation for life from Caitlin at RAIS, she invited me to talk at Lancaster Girls’ School. With Gisela I met with Cat Smith the MP.
I ask Gisela why she asks me with my pigeon English when some from Iran speak perfect English and she says because of my experience, I have been in the UK nearly 2 years.