Sometimes I get really angry, when I think of what my husband has been through as a child in the war-torn country which he escaped from, only to come to the UK and have his youth wasted.
For nine years he has not been allowed to work (or claim benefits - although he has never wanted benefits, he says that he is healthy and there is no reason why he cannot work). With no work and no right to public funds he has not been able to study either. He is a victim of the government's deliberate policy of using destitution as a way to try to force asylum seekers to go back to their countries.
What the government fails to understand is people like my husband cannot go home, instead they struggle to find an existence in the UK. But they are people, they deserve to have a chance at living, not merely existing. Why should they have their lives wasted by forced destitution or detention?