Meltem came to this country in 2001 with her mother. They sought asylum here after the family was persecuted by Turkish police for being Kurdish. But because they’d passed through Germany, their asylum claim was refused. It was not turned down immediately, however, and by the time they were detained they had been in the country for six years, building a life for themselves. Meltem was doing very well at school and they had relatives in this country who had applied successfully for asylum. Meltem’s bravery in speaking out while in detention won her many supporters, and she and her mother were eventually released and their case reheard. They now have refugee status. Meltem is back at school.
At 7 o’clock in the morning in August last year, at our home in Doncaster, I woke up to hear banging on the door. As soon as my mum opened the door, these men rushed in. They told us to be quick: they were shouting in our ears. They took us to the police station and then a car came and it was awful. It had a cage. For a minute, I thought to myself: Am I an animal? The journey took a long time and we ended up in Yarl’s Wood. It’s a detention centre, but it is no different from a jail.
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