Since the beginning of the pandemic, delays in the UK’s asylum process have soared. This has had a particularly severe impact on young people, who are spending longer periods in accommodation that is often unsuitable and isolated. Their mental health and wellbeing suffers as a result. Now, a new short film – which you can watch below – sheds light on these experiences. Here, Arjana* – a young Albanian woman seeking asylum in the UK – explains how.
As young asylum seekers in the UK, Covid was a particularly difficult time for us. While the whole world was trying to accept the idea of lockdown and staying indoors, this new form of isolation was cutting off what sparse networks of support we had left.
We had already been stripped of most of our basic human rights since arriving in the UK – including the right to study in higher education and the right to work and provide for ourselves – so being told not to leave the house or mix with others was not shocking to us. But for many of us, it was the final straw.
