refugees

Coventry: Refugees Welcome

ANOTHER new ESOL student: so many young men from overseas have arrived in our city over the summer months. He lingers after the class has finished. It’s time to pack up but he wants to stay and, sensing this, I sit down and listen.

Listen … listening is magic.

He tells me his story. A close family member finds he is guilty of illicit activity and informs the police; his life is in danger, he flees to a neighbouring country. There he goes ‘underground’ and finds illegal work; he daren’t appear in public because what if he is found and deported home? Long hours labour, a pittance for pay, sleeping under the work benches of the factory at night; eventually he moves on, working his way...