FROM KABUL TO CARDIFF: HUSEYINS STORY

Huseyin opens his story describing a bus that arrived at the airport to take him and others elsewhere. ‘We were not informed where we were going.’ Moreover, they refused to tell anyone where they were going which caused fear and anxiety. He thought the bus was taking them to an airport to send himself and other refugees back to Turkey. The bus finally arrived at night so no one could see where they were so no one realised it was a camp.

‘We were scared you know.’

Upon arrival they were registered and given rooms. When daylight occurred and Huseyin awoke he realised it was a military training camp. However, they could not leave the camp because there were protestors against refugees ‘every day and every night.’ 

‘They said ‘You are criminals. Why you came here? Go back to your countries.’

Huseyin goes on to describe how scared they all were and how it was ‘the darkest period of my life.’ The hateful messages the protesters conveyed led Huseyin to question why he came to the UK. To add to the stress nothing was certain at the refugee centre. His voice conveys the anxiety which accompanies the uncertainty of waiting. 

‘I don’t ask anymore why I came here because I made a lot of new local friends and international friends.’

Huseyin is happy with his new friends and explains how he keeps himself busy to stop himself from asking too many unanswerable questions. Huseyin is ‘very hopeful’ and ‘very optimistic’ about the future. He feels like the UK is the safest place for him. Huseyin goes on to explain his plans for the future. He will build on his four years he has already done at university, and he plans to do a master's about human rights and international relations.  

‘I am very hopeful.’

Written By Tess Brunskill. 

Find out how to support Huseyin, and others just like him: