An 18th birthday is usually a milestone to be celebrated, but for a teenager called Samet, it marks the unraveling of the life he has built in Britain.
After his father forced him to beg on the streets in Albania aged 11, Samet was trafficked to Belgium and then smuggled into Britain by lorry at 15. He was taken into care in Bristol and just as he was approaching adulthood, his asylum application is refused.
When Mo Farah revealed the horror of his childhood trafficking from Djibouti to Britain in a BBC documentary this week, the Home Office was quick to say that “no action” would be taken on his path to citizenship. But survivors of child trafficking who are currently fighting to stay in Britain say the Home Office is usually much more hostile.
After Samet was placed with a foster family in Bristol, he began to flourish and showed signs of being a talented carpenter at college. Now 20, he has been missing since his first asylum application was rejected in 2019.
He is now awaiting the outcome of a second asylum appeal and application, while a petition to keep him in Britain has more than 427,000 signatures.
Samet has post-traumatic stress disorder and his foster father, John Stokes, 68, has watched his mental health deteriorate as he waits, unable to work or study because of his immigration status.
“It’s like he’s been put in a freezer,” Stokes said. “His life stopped. The hope he had is long gone.”
Samet’s experience was very different from that of his older foster brother, Ali, a promising chef who was also trafficked from Albania. He was granted asylum following the endorsement of a Michelin-starred chef.
Stokes believes the Home Office is prioritizing exceptional cases, leaving many victims to suffer. “If Mo Farah had not been successful, I have no doubt they would have deported him,” he said.
“Most of these young people don’t want to be Mo Farah or top chefs, they just want to be able to work hard and have a life.”
Only 2% of child trafficking victims receive discretionary leave to remain, which they are entitled to under international law. Instead, many have temporary visas until shortly before their 18th birthday, when they are then pushed through the asylum system and face rejection and lengthy appeals or deportation.
Of all those over 18 who were trafficked into the UK as unaccompanied children, 35% were initially refused asylum in 2020, leaving them in limbo.
Patricia Durr, chief executive of the charity Ecpat UK, said the situation meant many child trafficking victims “live in fear of approaching their 18th birthday”.
She added: “The current system is very hostile to child victims of trafficking who are subject to immigration control. The Home Office’s response to Sir Mo shows an understanding and empathy for child victims of trafficking that we would like to see applied to all children.’
Ecpat is one of several anti-trafficking organizations that wrote a joint letter on Thursday demanding better outcomes for victims. Praising Farah for his courage, they pointed out that under the current system “many victims of trafficking, including those who were trafficked as children, will end up as non-believers, at risk of immigration detention, removal or imprisonment at the hands of the authorities , which must be proactive in offering protection.
Yasmin*, 27, was three when she was trafficked from Somalia to the UK by her family. She was placed with a relative in London, where she was abused for the next decade, culminating in her gang-rape by a group of Somali men at the age of 13.
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She said she was beaten and treated “like a maid in the house” and never properly felt part of the family.
After the rape, she was taken into care and assessed by the authorities as a victim of trafficking. Despite being considered a high risk of re-trafficking if returned to Somalia, she had several requests for leave to remain rejected as a teenager.
She is still fighting her immigration status. “I have to renew it every two years. My life is still on hold and I never met my real mom and dad in Somalia because I can’t travel.
“I contacted them again at 21 when I left care. One of the first things my mother said was, “I’m so happy you’re alive.”
In care, she is often moved to different places, compounding her trauma and lack of security. She plans to take legal action against two of the councils who she says failed to protect her properly.
“I’m glad Moe is out,” she said. “I think more people will speak up now that he’s done it. But it’s not so easy for people who don’t have the money and status that he has to expose traffic problems.
The Home Office said it would always accept that a child was not complicit in obtaining citizenship by fraud and would not treat ordinary cases like Farah’s any differently.
A spokesman said it was “misleading” to focus on any one immigration route for child victims of trafficking. “We have helped thousands of children in this situation to rebuild their lives here and in 2021 alone, 90% of UASC – where the majority of these children will have their applications processed – received leave.”
But Yasmin wants child victims like her and Farah to be better protected.
“The whole system needs to be overhauled,” she said. “I felt like a lone sheep surrounded by wolves.”
* name has been changed
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