At the heart of all this are many human storiespublished at 15:03 British Summer Time
Tom Joyner
Live reporter
Among the backlog of asylum claims waiting to be processed is Daastan’s.
The 26-year-old fled Afghanistan two years ago, fearing for his life after his father and brother were targeted by the Taliban.
After arriving in the UK, he applied for asylum and the Home Office found him a hotel room in Yorkshire, where he’s been ever since.
Every day, Daastan is given three meals and is allowed to leave for a walk if he signs out with a guard. Other than that, he says he spends most of his time in silence – his only roommate doesn’t speak English.
He told me it often feels like he is floating in a hopeless limbo: “You escape one problem and now you’re in another problem,” he explains, referring to his escape from the Taliban.
The nightly news coverage of protests against asylum seekers has only made things worse. One day, through his window, he watched as guards and police surrounded the hotel and stopped protestors from getting any closer to him.
“All we asylum seekers wanted was a shelter so the government put us in a hotel. That wasn’t our choice,” he says. “We haven’t done anything!”
Daastan’s mental health has taken a heavy toll, and he now takes antidepressants.
Around a year after he arrived in the UK, Daastan found out that his claim had been denied. With the help of a solicitor, he lodged an appeal, and is now awaiting news of the outcome.
Last year, he joined a local cricket team near his hotel, eager to play the game he loved back home in Afghanistan. But one day, his teammate made a comment about Daastan’s status as an asylum seeker.
“They didn’t know I understand English and they were talking about me using a lot of bad words. They gave me lots of depression,” he says.
“Because of one title: asylum seeker.”