I arrived at the hostel about quarter to twelve. As I prepared to go upstairs to visit two Somali sisters with a new-born baby, a man asked me who I was looking for. When I told him, he said that they were visiting relatives in Manchester.

     I rang Ali*, to see if he was in a reasonable state of health. He has many serious problems, which include being homeless for a year, and is very depressed. Ali came out into the hall, looking pleased to see me.

     Ali offered me the usual Iranian hospitality of tea and biscuits, and asked after everyone's health. He then told me that he had received a telephone call from a friend, whose postal address he uses, telling him that a large letter had arrived for him from the Home Office.

     Ali was very agitated, and I asked him if he would like me to read it and translate for him. He agreed, and said he had to collect it around half past two. In the meantime, he said, there was another asylum seeker friend who had received a deportation notice, and who was distraught. Ali alleged that Hussein* was booked on an Iranair flight on the 27 November from Heathrow! (The following day).

    Hussein, he explained, had already had two appeals turned down. I wondered if there had been a mistake, as I had recently been told by a solicitor that no Iranians had, as yet, been deported, although most of them seem to be refused asylum at the moment.

     Ali asked if I would visit Hussein at home. I said I would gladly do so. Hussein invited us into his dilapidated living room. His large black eyes looked absolutely haunted. Ali urged him to show me the letter, and when I read it, I was really shocked. He was indeed booked on a scheduled flight to Tehran the following day from Heathrow.

     I rang his solicitor, and she advised me that she had faxed a letter to the Home Office on Hussein's's behalf, on human rights grounds(Section65), appealing against the decision to deport him. She advised us that while the appeal was pending, which could take anything from two weeks to several months, Hussein's deportation had been temporarily cancelled. However, as the adjudicator didn't believe Hussein's' account of his flight from persecution, and had already turned down his appeal on human rights grounds once before, there was very little chance of ultimate success. I asked her what she would advise, and she said that if the appeal was again turned down, Hussein. would certainly be arrested and deported. I asked if she had any idea of what fate might await him in Iran, and she said that 'off the record', his only option was to abscond if his appeal was unsuccessful! The two men were both devastated. Hussein said he was going to kill himself, and Ali whispered that he had been saying this since he received the letter several days ago. He has, in fact, been in the UK for twenty months, and has been severely depressed for some time. Hussein's' eyes were full of tears, and he was unable to rouse himself to say anything further. I suggested that he might visit his GP to get some help, and to try and get a letter to help his case. He was totally apathetic, and was unable to remember where his health centre was. I found a recent prescription for antibiotics on the coffee table, with his GP's name and phone number. I then rang the asylum seeker's Health Worker, and explained the situation. He rang the GP and arranged an urgent consultation, and he agreed to come with his car and take Hussein to the surgery himself at half past four. Hussein was in a terribly depressed mental state, and I was really worried that he might try and commit suicide.

     Ali had to leave to collect his mail at this point, so I walked with him to the house, which was some distance away. Two asylum seekers shared this truly awful house.

     They were both polite to me, and I was offered tea, but they were both full of anger against the British government, and, I suppose, not knowing me personally, felt able to have quite a heated discussion about politics. They appeared to blame me for their situation, as I am British! I felt a lot of sympathy for them, as both men had experienced severe persecution in Iran, and had then had to endure nothing but hardship, including systematic racial abuse, since coming to the UK. After many months, their asylum claims had finally been rejected. The adjudicator had called them liars! No wonder that they were bitter!

     Ali then brought in his own envelope, and asked me to open it. He had already been informed by the Home Office that his asylum application had been refused, without any explanation. His eyes were full of fear as he watched me. I was horrified to find that the bulky document was nine days out of time! (The appeal has to be submitted within fourteen days of the document being sent, with two days allowance for the post.) I rang Ali's solicitor immediately, but the caseworker was busy with other clients all afternoon. I suggested to Ali that we go down to the office together, and take the documents with us. Ali agreed, but he wanted to know why he had been refused. I translated as well as I could, but Ali was too distressed to take much in. His application had been turned down on twenty-seven points out of forty-two! (His solicitor had previously told him that he had, in fact, a very strong case for asylum, and he felt that his interview had gone well!)

     The main points were that the Secretary of State disbelieved his entire story, saying he had told a pack of lies, and this assertion was presented as a fact, without one shred of evidence being brought forward to back it up. It was a totally subjective opinion. The claim was also made that Ali should have claimed asylum in the first 'safe' country (Turkey? -which sends Iranians straight back to Iran!), and as Ali hadn't done so, (Being in the back of a lorry, unaware of where he was at any particular time), he was 'obviously' an illegal entrant, not a political refugee. The Secretary of State then stated that Ali had not claimed asylum straight away, further damaging the truthfulness of his account. This was absolutely untrue, as he certainly had claimed asylum at Dover, at the police station where he was taken as soon as he disembarked from the lorry, but the Home Office promptly mixed up his file with someone from Iraq! He has received a written apology from the Home Office, after his solicitor protested on Ali's behalf, but in spite of Ali explaining his story in great detail at least three times, and in spite of good legal representation, the adjudicator still managed to make the same error, and twist his account completely, and then refuse him asylum! The most unfortunate thing for Ali however, is that his interview took place shortly after the 11th September, and the political party he supports is on the UK's list of banned organisations. Ali's brother has already been murdered by the authorities in Iran, and he faces the same fate if he is returned. Ali loathes violence of any kind!

     It seems as if the Home Office has now decided to deport people to Iran, to face imprisonment, torture and death! How do I make sense of this? I really can't bear the thought that asylum seekers, who have become my friends, may well be sent back to their deaths. I watched a video smuggled out of Iran recently, showing people being stoned to death. I will never be able to forget it. Public hangings, disappearances, imprisonment, and torture .this is the reality today for people involved in opposition political activity in Iran.

     Reform? This is, as yet, only window dressing. Is the British government really so naïve as to believe that elections in Iran really mean that things have changed, and that there is now freedom of political expression and religion, and an agreement to respect basic human rights? I am sure that the government know full well the true situation, but as asylum seekers are not welcome in the UK, and the Home Secretary has set a target for 30 000 'removals', asylum seekers' human rights no longer matter in the slightest.

     Ali was very angry and upset to find out the reasons for his refusal. It was a while before he was calm enough to leave the house. At the office, the secretary arranged for a more experienced solicitor to handle his appeal. She said that it was a good thing that we had kept the envelope as it had the date stamped on it, proving that it was a Home Office error that had delayed the appeal. The appeal would start to be processed straight away. Apparently, this is happening to many asylum seekers at the moment, and it appears to be quite a deliberate policy by the Home Office! Welcome to Britain!

     The stress and anxiety these inhumane policies cause asylum seeker are very considerable. Ali, along with thousands of other unfortunate asylum seekers, also faces forced dispersal, which we are trying to help him fight, and when you add this to the daily humiliation of shopping with vouchers, along with severe homesickness and the daily experiences of racial abuse, it is not surprising that depression and illness are commonplace.

     When we finally finished at the solicitor's, I then had to translate the documents again for Ali, as he had been too upset to take much in the first time around! My husband gave Ali a lift home, and then we set off for the hour's drive home. On the way, my mobile rang.

     It was the Doctor! She was sending Hussein straight to the mental health crisis centre at the Royal Liverpool hospital. She commented that she couldn't solve his basic problem, his threatened deportation, but she has written a letter for him to assist his solicitor with his appeal. She couldn 't prescribe any medication, as it takes too long to work. Hussein was at that moment sitting in her office begging her to give him some tablets so he could die! She felt he was at very serious risk of suicide.

     I felt very glad that I had intervened, but also very sad, and totally helpless to address the root cause of Hussein's distress, as was the doctor.

     This has been a fairly typical day, as many volunteers who try and help asylum seekers will recognize. In fact, my day actually began with a phone call to the Turkish embassy for another asylum seeker, at nine o' clock I then wrote a letter to the manager of the Y.M.C.A to request his assistance in obtaining a room for another homeless asylum seeker at the end of his tether. My husband then drove me into Liverpool, and I delivered the letter, and spoke to the manager, who has promised to help as soon as possible. The pressure for beds is intense, due to the severe homeless crisis in Liverpool. I then made my way to the hostel where the story began.

     Hussein and Ali's eyes haunt me. I will never get used to the suffering inflicted on fellow humans by our government, just because they aren't born British. I feel deeply ashamed of our government's asylum policies, and will continue to do all I can to help these victims of persecution, who are also my brothers and sisters.* Names have been changed to protect individuals.