Asylum seekers living in fear of being sent to Rwanda

Asylum seekers have said they are living in fear of being sent to Rwanda as the government prepares for the departure of the first flights to Africa.

Campaigners say they have seen people in tears after family members and friends were detained at a centre in Loughborough last week.

A former Afghan army officer who helped British forces has said he is scared of being forced to leave the country.

Another asylum seeker said he had started sleeping rough to avoid police while a third said he felt like they were being used as a "political football".

Sardar, who served as an officer in the Afghan National Army helping British forces in Helmand Province, did not qualify for a UK resettlement scheme.

He said he fled Afghanistan after being targeted at home and crossed the channel in a small boat.

Sardar was injured in the line of duty and had collected a weight of evidence to support a claim for asylum, including a glowing reference by a Nato mentor.

But he arrived a few months too late to claim refugee status in the UK because the government had changed the law.

Several former British military chiefs have already campaigned for former soldiers like Sardar to be exempt from the Rwanda plan.

Sardar, who has several photographs of himself on patrol and sharing meals with British soldiers, said he spent four years with UK forces in Helmand Province.

He said: "I know I was not in the British Army, but we did everything shoulder by shoulder against international terrorism."

Sardar added he only wants to work and support himself and will not stop signing in at the centre in Loughborough.

But he added his fortnightly appointment was "very scary, very stressful".

"Maybe I will get in and they arrest me, and don't let me back out," he said.

"[In the past] there were many many people staying for the signing. But today I finished in just two or three minutes. Nobody was there.

"I have to accept the rules. I'm very scared, but that's the rule."

Another Iraqi asylum seeker said the fear of being detained was already pushing him under the radar in Leicester.

'Mohammed' says he is now staying with friends or sleeping rough.

"I cannot sleep in my home because maybe the police will come and catch me. I live homeless now, in the street".

'Dana', an Iraqi Kurd, said some people coming to the centre did not choose to come to the UK and believes asylum seekers are being used as a political football.

He said: "People don't have options while they are dealing with the smugglers.

"They have got weapons. They are using coke. They are aggressive, they are violent to the people".

Refugee campaigners believe eight asylum seekers have been detained at the centre in Loughborough since the beginning of last week.

They say they have since seen people break down in tears after waiting for friends and relatives outside the centre, only to realise that they were not coming out.

Steve Cooke from Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity said: "We witnessed them going into acute shock. They were in complete disbelief, they were completely distraught, not knowing what to do."

Mr Cooke added one man waited for hours for his younger brother, who had just arrived from Afghanistan.

“We witnessed him being put into the back of an immigration detention van at the end of the day," he added.

"The Afghan man said he did not know how to tell his mother that his brother has been detained and was likely to end up somewhere in Africa”.

The campaigners blocked at least two immigration vans when the detentions began last week.

They have now started to take the name of every asylum seeker who goes into the Loughborough reporting centre and are handing out leaflets telling people who to call for legal advice if they are detained.

Another campaigner, Linda Walker, said she was volunteering because she felt so strongly about the way they are being treated.

"I've got to know people, and they've fled because they're in fear for their lives. And I can't stand by and let this happen".

Pete Radcliff from the Long Eaton Hotel Support Group does not accept the government's argument that deterring people from making dangerous crossings will save lives.

"If they wanted to save the lives of the poor desperate people climbing into boats, they'd allow them free and easy access without resorting to the people-smugglers."

However, refugee advice groups in Derby and Nottingham have advised worried asylum-seekers to keep signing in at the Loughborough centre.

They are concerned that some people are avoiding immigration appointments, which could jeopardise their asylum claims.

Official documents revealed last week that contact has been lost with 3,557 of the 5,700 asylum seekers in the first group of migrants identified for removal to Rwanda.

A government source denied they had gone missing and said the Home Office could contact everyone under consideration.

The Home Office said it could not comment on operational activity in Loughborough.

But it has confirmed that it has begun detaining people in preparation for the first flight to Rwanda in nine to 11 weeks.

A spokesperson added: “Now that the Safety of Rwanda Act has passed and our Treaty with Rwanda ratified, Government is entering the final phase of operationalising this landmark policy to tackle illegal migration and stop the boats".