Home owners offering refuge to asylum seekers
Retired professor and asylum seeker fleeing death threats forge firm friendship as Scots open homes to refugees
I felt guilty having a big empty room when so many people were homeless...so I gave it to an asylum seeker – Jo Haythornthwaite
For many of us, Christmas is a time to be at home, surrounded by our family and friends.
For some of those seeking refuge in Scotland, however, the festive season will be a traumatic time, far from home and full of uncertainty.
Around 1,500 asylum seekers in Scotland will have a proper home this year, thanks to the Positive Action in Housing (PAIH) charity and their Rooms For Refugees initiative.
Pioneered by the charity’s chief executive Robina Qureshi, the idea is simple – those with a spare room are matched with a refugee or asylum seeker in need of somewhere to stay.
“New people offering rooms come forward every week, and we’ve seen a big surge especially in the run up to Christmas,” said Sunny Singh, senior case worker for Glasgow-based PAIH.
“We have a large number of hosts in Glasgow and Edinburgh, but there are people across the country opening their homes.”
In the beginning, the charity had just 200 hosts and was only Scotlandbased. But after images of Alan Kurdi, the tragic Syrian toddler whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach, went viral in 2015 they now have more than 7,000 hosts across the UK.
The most common reason for homelessness in asylum seekers occurs when their claims are refused by the Home Office. Once that happens, payments of just under £38 a week stop and they are forced to leave their accommodation.
Many appeal or resubmit claims, but, still barred from working, end up destitute in the process.
“Some people are destitute for years, decades even. And the irony is, they want to work – many are extremely well educated and had good jobs before they had to flee,” said Sunny.
“Many people physically can’t go back. Entire houses, streets and villages have been wiped out by war.
“When hosts open up their homes however, it gives people who have been denied many of the basics of life we take for granted, the chance to feel human, normal and safe again.
“A lot of these people haven’t felt that in a long time.”
One is an 80-year-old retired professor of librarianship. The other is a 53-year-old refugee fleeing death threats in Pakistan.
Their backgrounds are very different but Jo Haythornthwaite and Khushi Khan have forged an unlikely bond, sharing a taste in handbags, a sense of fun and... a home.
The pair have shared Jo’s flat for almost four years. Now retired, Jo has hosted 12 asylum seekers since 2010 in her flat in Glasgow, including Khushi, her longest resident.
“I started to feel a bit guilty when I moved into this flat and had two big double rooms lying empty, knowing that some people have nothing,” said Jo. “So I took the plunge and decided to give one of them to an asylum seeker.”
Her most recent and her most “kind” guest, Khushi has lived with
Jo for almost four years aside from a traumatic few months when she was taken to Dungavel Detention Centre near Glasgow and then Yarlswood Detention Centre in Bedfordshire.
“Khushi had been living with me for over a year when she was involved in an incident in town and she was asked to give a statement,” said Jo.
“She hadn’t done anything wrong but when the police realised she was a destitute asylum seeker, they locked her in a room and later she was taken to Dungavel. It was awful.”
Jo, formerly a professor at Strathclyde University, made the two-hour round trip every week to visit her flatmate.
“At least when she was at Dungavel I could go and see her and make sure she was okay,” said Jo. “Next I heard, she’d been woken in the middle of the night, bundled into a van and taken to
We had a very nice judge who said Khushi had been shut up for too long
Yarlswood. I was very angry but this is what they do. I couldn’t visit but the lawyer got her a bail hearing so finally I had the chance to bring her home.”
The pensioner rallied support from her neighbours who each gave her £10 towards her air fare to bring Khushi back. All apart from one. “One of them said to me, ‘I’m sorry Jo, I’m not going to give you money – I’m just going to pay your whole air fare!’
“So I got a flight to Luton, a train to Bedford and then a taxi to Yarlswood all on my own.
“Luckily, we had a very nice judge who was kind and said, ‘I think she’s been shut up for far too long – take her home.’”
Having previously had her asylum claim refused, Khushi is currently awaiting the results of a fresh claim. The only money she has is a small allowance from Positive Action In Housing. She escaped Pakistan after her family disowned her for marrying the man she loved. She was intended for another man, whose family threatened to kill her for breaking the arrangement.
Her husband stayed in Pakistan and believes it is still too unsafe for Khushi to return. The couple haven’t seen each other for five years and have no idea if they will see each other again.
Khushi said: “In Glasgow, with Jo, my heart is happy, but I still miss him very much. It’s hard for us to talk often as he has to pretend he doesn’t know where I am for my safety.”
Jo describes her friend as “the most considerate and generous person” who “always tries to repay me with the very little she has.
“I’m forever telling her not to spend anything on me but she got me a red bag after I said I liked one she has – so now we match!”