LONDON: A Syrian interpreter abandoned by the UK’s asylum system attempted suicide after waiting nearly two years for a decision on his claim.
Ali, not his real name, arrived on a Tier 2 Highly Skilled Worker visa in 2020 and with permission to work as a translator for the Syrian White Helmets. He told The Guardian that fear of his application being rejected had severely impacted his mental health.
“I can’t sleep. It’s affecting everything – my mental health, my appetite. I can’t eat, I keep getting cramps and feeling really sick,” said Ali. “But as I was telling the Home Office guy all this, I said, ‘Please, give me a timeframe.’ ‘No, you have to wait.’ I said, ‘What can I do? Please help me. Help me to help myself.’ They said, ‘Write to me about what you’re telling me now.’
“It’s even more frustrating to go through even more bureaucracy when I’ve done everything they have asked me to do.”
With the Home Office refusing to provide him with any updates, timeframes, or assurances about his application despite repeated requests, Ali, who worked for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in Istanbul, said his mental health had drastically deteriorated.
Compounding his anxiety was knowing that his work had left his family in Syria as targets. His mother has been arrested and interrogated in a regime prison.
Ali added: “She’s now too terrified to speak to me, worried the line is being monitored. She’s traumatized and feels she is being watched, and I have no security here, which makes it even worse.”
He has been prescribed the strongest dose of antidepressants permissible by his doctor and is also seeing a psychiatrist and being offered urgent care.
A Home Office spokesperson told The Guardian: “The government is committed to ensuring asylum claims are considered without unnecessary delay, but we are currently prioritising cases involving unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Asylum seekers have access to health and social care services, we take every step to prevent self-harm or suicide.”
Syrian interpreter left in asylum limbo for two years attempted suicide
https://arab.news/pcpsj
Syrian interpreter left in asylum limbo for two years attempted suicide
- Ali, not his real name, arrived on a Tier 2 Highly Skilled Worker visa in 2020 and with permission to work as a translator for the Syrian White Helmets
- Compounding his anxiety was knowing that his work had left his family in Syria as targets
Kremlin welcomes US sanctions waiver says US and Russia share interest in stable energy markets
DUBAI: Russia sees a U.S. sanctions waiver on its oil as an attempt by Washington to stabilise global energy markets, and the two countries have a shared interest in this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"We see actions by the United States aimed at trying to stabilise energy markets. In this respect, our interests coincide," he said.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a temporary authorisation allowing countries around the world to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea on Thursday extending a measure that had previously been granted only to Indian refiners.
Bessent stressed in a post on X that the authorisation would not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government.
“This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” Bessent said on a post on X.
However, the measure received mix reviews in European capitals, with many fearing it could help replenish Russia's assualt on Ukraine.
"I am concerned that we are further filling Putin's war chest," German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said in Berlin on Friday.
Reiche said that she saw both sides to the United States' decision to issue a 30-day waiver for the purchase of Russian oil products, understanding the increasing ecnomic and political turnout from the oil crisis, particurlarly in South Korea and Japan.
"It seems to me that domestic political pressure in the United States is very, very high," Reiche said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was more direct, saying on Friday that it was wrong to ease sanctions against Russia for whatever reason. The sentiment was echoed by Norway’s Prime Minister, who also said sanctions should not be eased.
Oil prices held gains above $100 Friday and most equity markets dropped after Iran's leader called for the blocking of the crucial Strait of Hormuz and the opening up of new fronts in the war against the United States and Israel.
With the conflict heading towards its third week and showing no signs of ending, investors are growing increasingly worried about an extended crisis that could fan inflation and hammer the global economy.
