Abdullah was 19 years old and living with his parents in the disputed West Darfur region of Sudan when he was abducted by armed militia while on his way to tend the family’s flock of sheep on the edge of town. “They held me at gunpoint along with 15 other people, then they killed one of us,” he said.
A young and panicked Abdullah, caught in the crossfire of ethnic conflict, managed to escape his assailants that evening and immediately fled Sudan. He would never return to his home town nor see his parents again. It was the start of a harrowing three-year journey that took him to Libya, Malta, Italy, France and finally the UK, where he claimed asylum. He had no money and endured forced labour in Libya, imprisonment and a refugee camp in Malta and starvation in Italy, he said, and by the time he got to the UK in 2021, he was in a very bad way.
“When I arrived in the UK, they took me to a hotel for refugees in London,” he said. “I was very thin and had lost a lot of weight and was feeling alone and depressed. I had no money and barely any English and my mental health was low. A week later, a woman from a charity called Young Roots came to the hotel and offered to arrange for me to play football and meet other young people like myself. She gave me an Oyster Card and I took the bus and met other young Sudanese asylum seekers and we played football.”
As he spoke, Abdullah, now 25, broke into a broad grin. “That was the first time I had laughed, the first time I had felt normal in three years,” he said. “After that, Young Roots became like my parents’ home. They organised for me to have English lessons, they helped me to get counselling and mental health support, they helped me apply to college, to train to be in security and to get a job as a steward for a premier league football club.”
Young Roots is one of a group of organisations being funded by our Winter Appeal in partnership with Comic Relief, A Place to Call Home, which seeks to help London’s two most disadvantaged and maligned groups, refugees and people experiencing homelessness. Founded 20 years ago, the charity works annually with around 1,000 young refugees and asylum seekers, aged 11-25, supporting them by advocating for their rights and via youth drop-in sessions at their three bases in Brent, Kings Cross and Croydon. Our grant will be for £50,000 and will contribute to their core costs.
Abdullah stayed in touch with Young Roots when he was moved from his north London hotel room in January 2023 to a shared house elsewhere in the capital and they helped find him a lawyer to fight his asylum claim. With no indication from the Home Office as to how long he would be in limbo, he also turned to Young Roots to help him integrate into the UK. He credits their English tuition and mental health support for getting him into college where he is currently studying English and Maths.
In June last year, after an 18-month wait, Abdullah was granted refugee status, but that same week his joy was overshadowed by a Home Office eviction letter which gave him 28 days to “move on” and find his own accommodation. As a single young man with no money, Abdullah was not a priority for the council and faced having to sleep rough on the streets of London.
Newly recognised refugees like Abdullah are among the fastest rising sub-group of homeless people. That is why The Standard has called on the Government to double what is officially called the Move On period - so as to afford newly recognised refugees 56 days rather than the current 28 to “move on” from Home Office supported accommodation and avoid them ending up homeless. In doing so, we are joined by refugee charities like Young Roots as well as other homeless charities and London local authorities who are have called for the Move On period to be doubled, in line with the standard 56 days mandated by the Homelessness Reduction Act for vulnerable people.
In Abdullah’s case, he only avoided ending up on the streets because Young Roots directed him to Refugees at Home, an organisation that links refugees with people who have a spare room and are willing to help. Young Roots also helped him apply to the council and after a couple of months he was moved into temporary supported accommodation in a shared hostel in London, where he remains to this day. He has since made contact with his parents, he said, who know he is alive and where he is living, but regular communication is difficult because they don’t have a phone or access to the internet.
“Without Young Roots, things would have been so much more painful and difficult for me,” he said. “They look after me like family and take me to the seaside at Brighton and to do cool things like camping. Even my dream to one day work for the Red Cross they take seriously. When I was young and living in Sudan, the Red Cross would come and give us food and play games with us. They spoke no Arabic and we spoke no English but I experienced their kindness. I told Young Roots about my dream and they helped me volunteer for the Red Cross and realise my dream.”
He added: “Now that I am in a better position in my life, I would like to be able to give back. I feel free and happy here. It is the first time I feel that since I was a child. I want to study human rights at university.” He broke into a broad grin. “I have all these great plans.”
In a nutshell
Our Winter Appeal, A Place to Call Home, in partnership with Comic Relief, is seeking to help fund organisations in London and across the country that support asylum seekers and people experiencing homelessness.
How you can help
£10 could provide a young person travel to meet a wellbeing mentor and have a hot meal
£50 could provide travel to work or school for a month for an at-risk youth
£150 could refurbish a bike for an adult refugee giving them freedom to travel independently
£500 could train ten people with experience of homelessness to become homeless health advocates £1,000 could enable one of our partners to fully support a young person throughout the year
To make a donation visit: comicrelief.com/winter
