The Somali community in the UK: What we know and how we ... - ICAR

It is the family that she identifies as the critical
area for Somali experience in the UK. The main
problem for Somalis, she maintains, is not racism,
but missing family members - families divided by
the circumstances of war. Hibo had to manage
without her father, and there are others who arrive
in the UK with no parents at all. In a significant
and comprehensive recent report, Lucy Hannan
(2003) investigates the plight of the separated
Somali children arriving in the UK with only a “gap
in their hearts” where friends and family should
be. 96 Their parents have scraped together up to
US$10,000 to send a child from the dangerous
chaos of Mogadishu or Hargeisa to Europe or the
USA, believing that there would be opportunities
for education and a safe life unavailable at
home. Somalis are among the largest groups of
unaccompanied children entering the UK; Home
Office statistics show a growth from 53 young
Somalis aged seventeen or under entering in 1992
to 198 in 2001. But these figures only include those
seeking asylum - many more enter undetected and
therefore have no official existence.
The outcome of their journey is often very
different from the dream. At the mercy of
smugglers (illegally transporting youngsters for
profit) or traffickers (who have an explicit purpose
of exploitation) the children are often abandoned
once they reach their destination. They may then
be claimed by clan or kin, and put in the care or
‘relatives’, real or fictitious. The lucky few are
taken in by a caring family; others are exploited
for domestic labour, 97 benefit fraud, or, at worst,
prostitution and crime. The welfare benefits they
receive may be sent home as remittances rather
than used for their own support. Some young
people are forced to adopt new identities, lying
about their history and their age in order to claim
the local authority services open to the undereighteens.
Caught between the demands of two cultures, the
psychological effects of the experience on children
who may be already traumatised can be devastating.
In boys this may manifest itself in aggression,
contributing to the stereotype of violent Somali
youth. At school they may suffer bullying and
isolation, with little emotional support outside.
Such was the experience of Lee, a young Somali
war orphan who arrived alone in the UK, speaking
no English, at the age of thirteen. Placed in a hostel
with other refugee teenagers, he had to fend for
himself:
I was missing my family and the people were
all different from me and not settled…. There
were people from all different countries living
with me and we had to try to learn how to talk
to each other. We developed a little bit of sign
language as a way to express our emotions. 98
Few separated youngsters succeed educationally.
“Success stories are few” 99 and those that do
gain qualifications are often plagued by emotional
difficulties. Failure and instability may result in
the young person being returned to Somalia to
face a raft of new problems. 100 For those who
stay, among the most negative destinations are
psychiatric or juvenile detention units. Suicides
are not uncommon. Others manage to hang on to
their sense of self - but compare Hibo’s optimistic
verve with this sad account of Ahmed, driven out of
Mogadishu in 1999 by militia activity:
I travelled on the plane with my fixer.…[who]
came with me on a bus to central London and
took me to a phone box, where he phoned
some family friends…. He just told them I was
here and they should come and collect me. He
left me in the phone box. I was very nervous. I
didn’t know what would happen to me. I waited
for some time, then someone did come, and
took me to their house….
The mother was nice to me, but the children -
they had been here a long time, and they didn’t
like me. I was from Africa; everything about me
was different. They were abusive and said very
94. Interviews, Horn Stars Somali Youth Club, Harlesden, London 4.4.03.
95. Interview, 4.4.03.
96. Gap in their hearts: The experience of separated Somali
children was commissioned by Integrated Regional Information Networks
(IRIN), and is also available on IRIN’s website
97. See Waris Dirie’s account of her treatment at the hands of wealthy
elite Somali relatives in London (1998).
98. Independent on Sunday 15.6.03.
99. Hannan, 2003: 45.
100. Ibid.: 54-62
The Somali community in the UK
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