Send me back home now, pleads Iranian migrant who hates living in Manchester
YOU might think that a choice between living on benefits in a democracy or an uncertain future in one of the world’s most repressive regimes would produce only one result.
But an Iranian migrant says he would prefer to go home rather than remain in Manchester.
Arash Aria wants to leave behind Britain’s northern powerhouse, famed for its industrial base, football teams, thriving pop culture … and incessant rain.
The 25-year-old is so desperate to return to Iran that on Monday he handed himself in to police claiming to be an illegal immigrant and asking to be sent back.
Officers put him in a cell, only to discover that he was in the UK lawfully having moved here ten years ago – and had applied for a British passport only five months previously.
As a result, he was released. Yesterday the former waiter said he wanted to leave Manchester because the city had become ‘rude and more violent than Iran’ in the time he has lived there. To add insult to injury,
‘I’m just fed up with everything’
he claimed the UK fell below the standards he expected.
Mr Aria, who was educated in Britain and has relied on housing benefits for several years, told of his disillusionment. Speaking outside his high-rise council flat in Manchester, he complained he felt unwelcome in the city and had struggled to find work for the past six months.
‘I’m just fed up with everything. It’s not what I imagined coming here. Anywhere you go, you want to work hard and follow your dreams – but this is not the dream I wanted,’ he said.
‘This is meant to be a good country. But it falls below the standards I’d expected. I don’t get respect here and people are rude to me. I suggest other people trying to come here should think carefully about where they want to go.’
He said he feels unwelcome in the city and finds it increasingly dangerous, adding: ‘It has become really violent, there’s far more violence than in Iran.’
Mr Aria grew up in a middleclass family in Shiraz, southwest Iran, where his father worked as a mechanic and his mother was a housekeeper. But when his mother moved to England after his parents separated, he joined her aged 15 and studied for his GCSEs and BTEC in a local comprehensive. Since leaving school with ambitions of becoming a fashion designer, he has been able to find work only as a waiter on up to £400 a month.
To pay his bills, he has had to rely on housing benefit for much of the past seven years.
‘I try every day to find a job, I have sent my CV to so many places,’ he said. ‘But no one wants me here. I will find it easier to get a job in Iran than in Manchester.’ Once the Home Office sends his passport, Mr Aria plans to fly to Iran and join his cousin’s wedding planning business in Shiraz.
Yesterday his saga sparked a frenzy on social media. Several Mancunians came out in support of Mr Aria, with one quipping ‘we’ve all been there’ and another tweeting ‘Ten years in Manchester? Never mind deportation – give the man a medal’.
Another, less sympathetic, joked: ‘Give him an umbrella and tell him to get on with it!’
Detective sergeant David Henshall, who was on duty at the time, said Mr Aria began shouting and screaming when he first turned up at the police station, adding: ‘I got a call from the staff at the front desk who said he was being aggressive and throwing his bike around, so I went to help. He was very angry and kept saying how much he hated Manchester.’
A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in London told the Daily Telegraph that Mr Aria could be offered consular help to return to Iran and even a contribution towards the cost of his flight.
He said: ‘We will be able to ensure he is able to return to our country. We may be able to offer financial assistance.’