A Migrant’s Desperate Day Chasing Work at the World Cup Before They Are Fired
It seems as if every day is an adventure and each day feels like something new.
When there is a new story to tell, there is always a place to share it.
I am sitting on a bench in front of the Grosvenor Hotel in Downtown London where I meet up with Yara, who is currently living in The United Kingdom after having worked with Amnesty International for a while.
“I started working with Amnesty International in 2012 when I was 18 years old,” Yara recounted.
“I was a high school student,” continued Yara. “I was a refugee from Iraq, actually.”
Yara had been searching for a job for two years before being hired at Amnesty International. “I started working with Amnesty International after spending some time in jail as a consequence of my refusal to leave my country.”
After being arrested and detained by immigration authorities, Yara was thrown into harsh conditions. She was then deported by the U.K. government.
“I was basically sent back to Baghdad within two hours of my return to London,” Yara recounted.
“I missed my family’s wedding that I was supposed to be at two weeks before.”
Yara returned to the United Kingdom to join her family in the summer of 2018 when she was 19 years old.
“The whole family had moved to Ireland and I wanted to be in the UK so I could be with them,” Yara said.
“I didn’t want to go back because it was very hard living in Iraq, so I was sent here to the U.K.”
Yara now works with a charity that has been working with migrants throughout the world, the European Network of Migrant Centers for Human Rights. “I’ve been working with them for two years now,” she said.
Yara worked to develop and assist asylum-seekers and migrants in The United Kingdom, Germany, and the Channel Islands.
Her story is certainly not unique. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are nearly half a
