Asmeret Tesfazghi was born in Eritrea in 1979. She came to the UK in 1989 with her mother and siblings, escaping the Eritrean war of independence. In 2005 Asmeret won the GMTV Carer of the Year Pride of Britain Award for her work fostering vulnerable teenagers. Asmeret and Letina, her mother, live in South London.
What happened was I think within a week we got into this country, or two, in about two weeks or maybe a little bit longer, they actually accepted us, with full refugee status. Even my mum was shocked herself because our plan was not to live here forever, it was just to get away from the war for a year or two and then go back home. That was her plan and I think she was confused like 'why do we need papers, we are not going to stay in this country?'
She asked someone else to explain to her what the letter was about, you know she tells us now and they said to her 'oh you know you have been accepted in this country, congratulations' and she was like
'what for? We don't need to be accepted, we are going to go back home'. But 16 years later, we are still here.
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