The cyclist: Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay, 22
Ethiopian Tesfay is one of her home country’s elite cyclists. She has achieved success in a range of competitions such as the African Continental Championships and the national championships of Ethiopia. She recently won her first race on British soil at a London cycling event. Her country has been embroiled in a drawn-out conflict in western Tigray and, because of the dangerous conditions there, she claimed asylum in the UK last year.
I rode a bicycle for the first time when I was 13. The bicycle belonged to my older brother. I entered competitions in Ethiopia but could not get to some of the international ones because I was not granted visas to travel to them.
As an asylum seeker in the UK, I am living in a cramped hotel room in west London with two other women. We are provided with food that is very difficult to eat and that makes me sick. It is not food that is good for athletes. The Home Office gives us £8.86 per week for essential expenses. It is difficult to pursue my dreams as an elite cyclist while living in these conditions.
There is nowhere in the hotel to store my racing bike so Joanne MacInnes, director of the charity West London Welcome, which is doing a lot to support me along with the organisation Team Africa Rising, allows me to store my bike at her house.
I am very happy to have recently got my British cycling racing licence, and I finished with the top female riders at the recent Lincoln Grand Prix.
Girls are not encouraged to ride bicycles in Ethiopia, but I have a rebellious spirit and that made me determined to continue. My family are supporting me with my cycling here and so are the people from my area. I am determined to succeed and reach my ultimate dream of competing in the Tour de France. I try to cycle for six or six-and-a-half hours a day, six days a week. When I’m on my bike, I can switch off from all my problems about what is happening in my country and life as an asylum seeker. It’s just me and the bike. If I can’t cycle, I’m just stuck in my room and my anxiety increases.
The wheelchair shot putter: Ibtissem Tlili, 30
Tlili is a Paralympic athlete from Tunisia who competed in wheelchair javelin and shot put in her home country. She has been placed by the Home Office with other disabled asylum seekers in a former care home in Clacton, Essex, where Nigel Farage is now her local MP. A high level of hate crimes has been recorded in the area.
I became paralysed following a car crash when I was 17. There are not many chances for disabled people to work and study in my home country but I discovered wheelchair javelin and shot put and started to compete in Paralympic events, winning many medals. But I was targeted as a disabled athlete and escaped to the UK, where I claimed asylum last year.
The Home Office has put a lot of disabled asylum seekers together in one place and left us here. I don’t feel safe. I have asked the Home Office to allow me to move to somewhere else, where I can live close to my brother, but they have not responded to my request. The living conditions are bad. There is no privacy and the disabled people living here do not get the care and support we need.
I cannot train as a Paralympic athlete while I’m living in this place. The organisation Rama – Refugee, Asylum Seeker & Migrant Action – in Essex have helped me a lot. Maria Wilby from the charity has got us free gym places to help with our physical fitness, which is great. But it is not possible for me to train there in javelin and shot put. I can’t enter any Paralympic competitions in the UK at the moment and because I can’t practise, I feel like I’m losing my career. I would love to live in a suitable place for my disability where I could train with a team and coaches. I hope I can get back to my sport quickly. I miss it so much.
The footballer: Ahmed Mohammed, 18
Mohammed is from Sudan, and came to the UK at the age of 16 after fleeing persecution in his home country. He plays football for a team of asylum seekers and refugees in Oxford.
I was very young when I came here and I had a very difficult journey after escaping from conflict in Sudan. Back home I lived in the capital, Khartoum, and loved playing football there. I was about eight when I started playing. Here, I play with Oxford Phoenix FC, a team made up of asylum seekers and refugees. I have been volunteering to help run the team for about two years and combine this with doing business studies at college. We get support for the team from Oxford United in the Community, part of the English Football League Trust along with Refugee Resource and Asylum Welcome.
Football has helped me so much with integration in the UK, and with developing important skills like teamwork. It has improved my physical and mental health and has had a positive impact on the stress I feel from the things I went through. And it has helped me clear my mind. My dream would be to play football professionally. I’m going to push as hard as I can to achieve that.
The runner: Patience Dube, 37
Dube fled Zimbabwe and escaped to Dublin, where she claimed asylum. She is now a keen runner with Sanctuary Runners.
I had never done any running before I reached Europe. When I was in my home country it never would have occurred to me to wake up in the morning and go for a jog. It’s just not something I would have done.
I felt very alone when I arrived here after I had to leave my country. But one day I saw a leaflet for Sanctuary Runners, which brings communities together and supports asylum seekers and refugees. It was offering a walk, a run and a chat, so I decided to go along.
One of their volunteers came to pick me up from my accommodation, to take me to a parkrun. Before I started the run I thought I would be able to do it well. I said to myself: “I’m from Africa; I’m going to leave everyone behind.” But actually I was the slowest runner there and I couldn’t breathe. A friend who is nearly 70 passed me after the first kilometre.
But things got better. At first it took me 40-45 minutes to run 5km but now I can run that distance in 25 minutes. I’ve entered quite a few races and have won six or seven medals which are now hanging on my wall. I had never won a medal before and am really proud of how far I’ve come.
Being an asylum seeker is a very difficult life. You can’t plan for tomorrow because you don’t even know where you’ll be; asylum seekers get moved around a lot. But running has brought me out of the dark place I was in mentally. It has made me look at life from a different angle and to try to enjoy it every day. Some people turn to drugs or alcohol when they are going through a difficult time in their lives but I have my running. I’m free to run and I run to feel free.
The table tennis player: Anwar Karimi, 47
Karimi is a Kurdish refugee from Iran. He plays table tennis at Brighton Table Tennis Club, which works with players of all abilities and from a wide variety of backgrounds.
It was very difficult for me to leave my family and my land. I left Iran in September 2023 and claimed asylum here. I had a diploma in literature and was politically active for Kurdish rights. I was arrested and tortured when I was younger and was not allowed to go to university. I experienced periods of solitary confinement in prison.
One time I was demonstrating for Kurdish rights and was run over by the country’s revolutionary guards, leaving my right shoulder and left elbow badly broken. When I reached the UK I felt deeply alone. I was sick, my body was so weak and I couldn’t speak any English. The Home Office put me in accommodation in a hotel in Hove and I found the Brighton Table Tennis Club.
I had never played table tennis before but everyone at the club was so friendly and welcoming. There was no discrimination against anyone and everything is done in a spirit of cooperation and encouragement. Along with table tennis I have also taken up football and running. Exercise has changed my mind and helped my body get into good shape. It has allowed me to forget past memories to some extent and it has stopped my depression from progressing.
As Kurds we do not have a country, although we have a homeland. So the UK has become my first country and my second homeland. Here I have a new life.
