As an asylum seeker from Iran, a journalist in exile from a dictatorship, I will always live in fear of authoritarian governments. Repression, callous indifference, casual cruelty – such regimes turn suffering into a project. It’s why I fled my home country. It’s why I risked my life to seek asylum in the United Kingdom.
The Rwanda policy, and the obvious malice of those driving it forward, is proof this disease has infected the UK as well. In that sense my flight was a failure. I didn’t escape authoritarianism when I left Iran.
I was in a hotel room in Sheffield when Boris Johnson announced his plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda in early 2022. I was still in the process of being recognised as a refugee, still vulnerable to rejection and deportation. Even though no flights were scheduled and no letters had been sent, I was so scared they would arrest me that I packed my things and slept in the park. The next night I stayed with a friend in another city.
