Source Material
Script excerpts, I've Got Something to Show You:
Home Office Official 1:
Title?
Esrafil 1:
Mr.
Home Office Official 1 :
Surname?
Esrafil 1:
Shiri Tajaroghi
Home Office Official 1:
Other names?
Esrafil 1:
Esrafil.
Home Office Official 1:
Date of birth?
Esrafil 1:
7th of May 1974.
Home Office Official 1:
Nationality?
Esrafil 1:
Iranian. Male. Single.
Home Office Official 1:
Any living relatives? Friends?
Esrafil 1:
No.
Home Office Official 1:
Language? Ethnicity? Religion?
Esrafil 1:
Farsi. Asian. Muslim.
[...]
Abas:
Em, when we arrived London we lived, no I lived, in hotel. I stayed hotel three days. When we must came here I saw [Esrafil] in the bus first time, yes. When I...em, when we went to the bus, on the bus. He ask, I'm Iranian. I didn't know he's Iranian because his face was white you know. Is same Turkish people and he said, Are you Iranian? I said, Yes and he told, Nice to meet you and, God bless you. Where are you going? Something. And he was very joking. Very nice man. Yes we went to Salford and we lived in Spruce Court . Is flat, you know, we lived in flat together.
(Esrafil 2 moves to position)
[...]
Slide 19: December 2002
Storyteller:
A letter from NASS notifies him of his refusal and a notice that he'll be returned to Iran by date specified. I'm sure he must have gone over the moon just by receiving the letter with a home Office stamp, thinking it's positive. Maybe Esrafil went in search of someone to break the news for him only to get the shock of his life. But sometimes it's nicer to come face to face with the most shocking moments in your life than to know your dying world through someone else. Maybe he moaned but there was no-one to lift him up to safety. We don't know. We do know that he was evicted from his house, had his benefits removed and had no further vouchers for food.
Abas:
Yeh, he was eh…he lived with me after that. Just he went to interview one time and court once. After that when he came back from London he was very... he was very sad because he said I don't think so, maybe I can't receive my passport. Mmmm, after I think, after two months at Christmas, you know 2002, I think, eh, his voucher, his money and eh his accommodation was cut. You understand? And he was very sad.
[...]
Eucharia:
People should take you as a human being for who you are and not where you come from. Who you are describes your own person, not a title or anything or your status in this country. Sometimes they have to relate to you according to what you are in this country because asylum seeker is not a person. It's the situation which makes you become one. It's not the real you, you are different. You are person like them. You have intelligence, you have capability to work... I mean, I don't know how to put it but asylum seeker is not a person, is not a human being is just a situation. I'm not sure anybody would want to come and become an asylum seeker.
