- The Observer,
- Sunday June 29 2003
In the following article a slip of the finger inflated Plymouth's population to 350,000. The correct figure is 250,000.
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Saman and two Iraqi Kurdish friends were on their way to a student party at the university when they were set upon by a group of local youths in an underpass close to Plymouth city centre.
Asked if they were Turks, Saman decided it wasn't the moment to explain the complexities of Iraqi Kurdish identity and said they were Greeks. The locals decided they hated Greeks just as much as Turks and attacked them anyway. Saman escaped with cuts and bruises, but one friend ended up in hospital, his face split open with a kebab skewer carried by one of his assailants.
'Many times they swear at me in the street,' said Saman, a 20-year-old from Irbil who arrived in Britain three years ago. 'It is upsetting when you smile and say "Hi" and someone says "Fuck you". We hear they are building a racist party here. If that happens, I will leave.'
The violent clashes in Wrexham last week threw a spotlight on the difficult circumstances in which many asylum seekers, housed in tight-knit communities in small towns across Britain, are forced to live. However, the shocking plight of the asylum seekers in the North Wales town came as no surprise to their counterparts in Plymouth.
Attacks on asylum seekers have become routine in Plymouth since the beginning of the year, when an Iraqi was beaten up outside a supermarket in the city centre during daylight. More recently a group of 12 people set upon an Iraqi Turkoman in a city centre nightclub; the man is still receiving medical treatment.
The city is largely white and still dominated by the military and naval presence in the dockyards. It has never had a big immigrant community and until recently the proportion of blacks and Asians was less than 1 per cent. Last year that figure rose to 4 per cent and tensions have increased.
As in Wrexham, these tensions are hugely out of proportion to the numbers of refugees in the area. Asylum seekers make up a tiny proportion of Plymouth's 350,000 population. In total there are just 1,000 refugees in the city, including those who have successfully claimed asylum here.
Official police figures show that Plymouth averages between 22 and 30 racist incidents a month, many of which involve asylum seekers. Refugee groups believe as many as six times more incidents go unreported. Of the dozen or so asylum seekers who chose to talk to The Observer in Plymouth, most had been attacked and all had been verbally abused.
Ramazan Mohamed, a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurd from Mosul, was walking on Plymouth Hoe with two Turkish girls and an English friend when a local youth asked him where he came from before throwing a football in his face. 'I'm not saying all English people are racist,' he said. 'But there are not many asylum seekers and more needs to be done to help us mix with local people here - English lessons, football teams, training courses, that kind of thing.'
Kecia Harris of Refugee Action in Plymouth said that most local people don't really want to admit the presence of asylum seekers. 'Plymouth is one of the few places in Britain where they still stare at black people,' she said.
At Jester's nightclub in the town's Union Street clubland they don't have a problem with asylum seekers - any more. 'They first started coming in here around six months ago and we were perfectly friendly,' said club owner Ken Locke. 'But this is traditionally a servicemen's club and the boys made it clear that asylum seekers weren't welcome. The Royal Marines would take them out of the club in a headlock and say "This is a British place". We rarely see them now.'
On Friday night bouncers outside the club said the violence wasn't always in one direction. When Iraqis came to the club they were often 'tooled up' with knives and screwdrivers.
Khusrow Mustapha, an interpreter often called on by the police to help when there has been a racist incident, said it was true that some asylum seekers were beginning to fight back. 'The problem in Plymouth is really increasing,' he said. 'The police told me "You see, one of your fellow citizens stabbed a marine. As usual you Iraqis have a knife". But this is not true of all of us.'
A solution of sorts has been found in Plymouth. It's called a ghetto. At the Raglan Road estate in Devonport, former naval quarters have been converted into asylum seeker accommodation. The site is run by Adelphi Hotels under contract from the Home Office. Security is tight, with a single access road patrolled 24 hours by guards employed by the hotel group.
Such is the Home Office sensitivity about the site that staff are under strict instructions not to talk to the press. All inquiries to Adelphi are referred to the Home Office and The Observer was asked not to enter the site without first obtaining clearance from the Home Office.
The estate is just outside the centre of the city in one of the poorest parts of Devon. The grey concrete flats are standard-issue army blocks from the 1970s. Inside they are shabby and underfurnished, but clean and secure. Most of the men here who talked to The Observer felt safe here but it was a different matter when they left the estate.
Sonam, a 23-year-old farmer from Nepal, arrived in Plymouth eight months ago. His cautious smile reveals two missing teeth he lost, not in the violent conflict in his own country, but coming back from the corner shop in Devonport. Three locals jumped him as he was returning to the safety of the Raglan Road ghetto. He has reported the incident to the police, but anonymously. It is unlikely his attackers will ever be caught.
Sonam now feels safe only inside the Raglan Road compound. He has befriended an English security guard he says is like a brother to him and he spends his evenings watching television.
'It's like a community here, a village that no one can enter. I stay at home. I don't go to the city centre. I don't really ever leave.'
Asylum figures
· The number of people seeking asylum in Britain rose by 20 per cent in 2002 to hit a record 110,700, including dependants. More than 9,000 people a month claimed asylum last year.
· In absolute terms, Britain received the largest number of applications, but, as a percentage, Britain had 1.8 applications per 1,000 of population (eighth in the EU).
· Iraq, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Somalia and China are the top five sources of asylum seekers.
· Last year, half of the applications were accepted as genuine.
