For Ruba, the decision of whether to leave Sierra Leone and apply for asylum in the UK was on a knife edge. On the one hand, he was a disability rights activist who faced harassment and death threats for his continual agitating and links to a political party that had just lost the 2018 general election. On the other, his wife was expecting his fourth child and the last thing he wanted was to leave his family and his high-profile position on the Commission for Persons with Disability. On top of this, Ruba is blind, having lost his sight due to measles aged three, so uprooting would be especially daunting.
The outcome was decided soon after in 2019 when Ruba attended a conference in London and the situation back home spiralled with activists, journalists and politicians arrested, houses burnt down and extrajudicial killings reported. “I had only intended to stay three weeks,” said Ruba. “When it became clear it would be unsafe and unwise for me to return, I applied for asylum. It was a tough decision to make.”
