I quit my role at the Home Office last year because I could not serve in a department led by our current Home Secretary, whose views towards refugee “people like me” are despicable. I fled what is today Somaliland 33 years ago with half of my family, leaving the rest behind not knowing if I would ever see them again. Fellow British-Somali and Londoner Warsan Shire perfectly summed up why my family and I became refugees when she said “no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark; you only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well”.
And run everyone did, looking for shelter where they could find it, and for us it was here in the UK. Things were so different then, compared to how they are today. There was kindness, there was compassion and because of that I am who I am today. The sad irony is that when my family and I became refugees the country also had a Conservative government and one which was led by the Iron Lady herself.
