A woman who fled relentless domestic abuse has revealed how a single letter from the Home Office refusing her asylum claim led her to attempt suicide three times, plunging her into what she describes as 'its own form of torture'.
A Life of Abuse and a Desperate Escape
In the early 2000s, the woman entered a marriage that became a nightmare of sustained domestic violence. She endured physical, sexual, emotional, verbal, and financial abuse at the hands of her husband. The violence was so severe that after one particularly brutal beating left her in a coma, she knew she had to escape.
In the early 2020s, she made the courageous decision to flee to the UK on a visa, believing she would find safety. The trauma of her abuse followed her, manifesting as anxiety, depression, and nightmares. She was soon diagnosed with PTSD and began taking antidepressants.
The Home Office Letter That Shattered Hope
After frantically trying to renew her visa, she applied for asylum within a year of arriving. She then entered a years-long limbo, waiting for a decision. In autumn 2023, that decision arrived in the form of a letter from the Home Office.
Her stomach dropped as she opened it and read that her application had been refused. The letter stated she had just 10 days to submit an appeal or face removal from the UK. In that moment, she was consumed by a drowning fear of being sent back to her abusive husband and the life she had risked everything to escape.
From Despair to a Continued Fight
The terror and despair triggered by the Home Office's correspondence had a devastating impact on her mental health. She reveals, 'I attempted suicide a total of three times – all as a direct result of the fear and despair that the Home Office and their letter made me feel.' She felt she would rather die than be returned to the danger she fled.
Thankfully, through her church, she found a new lawyer who secured a deadline extension from the Home Office. An appeal was submitted, and she continues to wait for a decision to this day, living in temporary accommodation.
The experience has been so traumatic that her GP advised her to no longer open Home Office letters herself; all correspondence is now directed to her lawyer. She states that the asylum system has permanently affected her life, wellbeing, and health, leaving scars that take years to heal. Despite the ordeal, her message is clear: 'I am still fighting and I will not give up.'
