Bella was born in Uganda in 1986. Her father was heavily involved in opposition politics. One evening, when she was 15 years old, government officials knocked at the door of the house seeking her father’s photographs and documents.
When he refused to supply them, they beat him. Hearing his screams, Bella came into the room. The men then raped her. They took her father away. That was the last time she saw him.
Bella went into hiding in a remote part of rural Uganda, though it still wasn't safe. Government agents were after her and her life was in danger. A week later she was on a plane to the UK, accompanied by an opposition party member. He was her next rapist.
Bella escaped after two weeks and lived rough. It was on the streets that she learnt that she could claim for asylum. She was still 15.
Categorised as an ‘unaccompanied minor’, she was referred to social services and placed with a foster family in Middlesex. She began therapy for post traumatic stress disorder and depression and was referred to a solicitor who initiated her asylum claim on humanitarian grounds. She was given leave to remain until a day before her eighteenth birthday which was in 2004.
Before she turned eighteen, she applied for an extension of her leave. The Home Office refused her application.
She appealed against the decision to deny her refugee status. Despite strong psychiatric evidence, her appeal was rejected because the tribunal did not believe that someone who had been raped would go back to the scene of the rape.
Bella takes up the story.
“I had told them that I had run away from the home and found a neighbour and had then gone back to the home to hide in the bushes.'"
“They said they did not believe that someone who had been raped would go back to the place that they had been raped. They said that they believed all victims of rape who had run away would not return”
Bella had an interpreter in court. She had in fact referred to hiding in the bushes in the surrounding vicinity of the house, but this had been misinterpreted as “home”.
The tribunal thought she was saying she had returned to the scene of the rape.
“…since then every judge that I have been before has used this against me” .
One day in 2005, Bella received a visit from Immigration officials who wanted to assess her circumstances. She was told that she would soon be invited for an interview.
Instead, a few days later, she opened the door to a group of immigration officers. They handcuffed her and took her baby son away. He was one year old. They were both taken to Yarl’s Wood detention centre in a caged van and detained for eight days before her solicitor was able to inform them that she still had an outstanding claim and she was released.
After her release, she made a fresh application for asylum through her solicitor and attended the Croydon reporting centre as required. In 2006, Bella was detained again by immigration officers at Croydon after a visit to sign on.
She was driven to her son’s nursery school and made to collect her son. They were taken to Yarl’s Wood. Two days later they were taken to the airport and told they would be boarding a flight to Uganda. When she said that she still had an outstanding claim, she was told that she could appeal from Uganda. Under the Immigration Act 1971, an asylum seeker with an outstanding claim should not be deported.
Bella resisted and was carried onto the plane.
“My hair was ripped out of my head, my shoes were torn and my son was taken away….I was handcuffed into the seat beside my son. My son couldn’t understand what was going on. I was in such excruciating pain, it was like the horror of Uganda happening all over again.”
Bella
laura (not verified) — Wed, 01/20/2010 - 00:47How can this happen to a woman like Bella in the UK? What have we become as a civilized society? Where are our morals? What has happened to us, educated human beings that we have stooped so low as to treat another human being, like ourselves, like Bella has been treated. We should be ashamed of ourselves. All I want to do is to apologize to Bella and to her 2 children. Give her what is legally hers. Obviously, she will never regain her peace of mind, a calm existance or happiness. Just man up and treat this woman as she deserves to be treated. Is that so damn hard??
The government should be ashamed
Anonymous (not verified) — Mon, 10/26/2009 - 20:15That you should have gone through such tragedy in Uganda is bad enough, but that this should be compounded by such treatment in the UK is totally unacceptable. How can the government allow private companies to behave in this way and get away with it?
I wish Bella the very best
Sonja (not verified) — Thu, 07/16/2009 - 21:28When reading Bellas story you just recognise that simple everyday life things that you take for granted are luxury for some people only because they have been born in the wrong time in the wrong country. I wish Bella the very best that she can live without fear one day.
Post new comment