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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Ayman Alhussein

I’m a legal refugee in Britain. So why am I always being treated like a criminal?

Boy in a cap standing in a dry landscape with scrub throws rose petals in the air, smiling
The harvest of Damask roses begins in the Al-Nabek district of Syria, 21 May 2025. Photograph: Hasan Belal/Anadolu/Getty Images

Hardly a day goes by without a new insult being hurled in the faces of asylum seekers and refugees. We’re scroungers, rapists, fighting-age men who shouldn’t have left our home countries. Sometimes we’re simply “illegals”, the most dehumanising term of all. When did it become a crime to run for your life?

The people levelling these accusations are superb at making themselves heard. Mud sticks – and most of us are too scared to try to set the record straight. I don’t know how many of our accusers have sat down with us, human to human, and listened to our stories. Here’s mine.

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