Sudan Refugee Family Stuck in Oxford Hotel Make Plea for Help
A mother who fled the conflict in Sudan to the UK says she is in a “bad psychological state” after being left in hotels for weeks.
Rayan Bashir was evacuated from Wadi Sayyinda military base to London with her four children.
She says the family is struggling with an insufficient weekly food budget and has been left in a hotel in Oxford with one room and no kitchen area.
Oxford City Council said it was “urgently” seeking other accommodation.
Fighting broke out in mid-April between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), leading to many civilians trying to flee.
Mrs Bashir said her husband, a British citizen, remains in Sudan, unable to escape due to militia blockades in his area.
The family arrived in the UK at the end of April and later came to Oxford on 3 June after hearing there was a strong Sudanese community in the city.
But Mrs Bashir says her children, who are all British citizens, are often left crying due to hunger while her asthmatic daughter is unable to fully open the hotel windows to help her breath.
“Isn’t it my children’s right as British citizens to have a home?”, Mrs Bashir said.
“The money that I get is not enough to feed us for a week. When the children got sick, I took them to the GP and they did not examine them.
“They did not take into account that we came from war. We were unable to move inside our house for fear of being hit by bullets, and used to sit under beds and table tops.”
Nazar Yousif, from the organisation Sudanese in Oxford, said: “They’ve been let down by the system. If someone has just fled a warzone leaving her husband far away, you would expect there to be more support.”
An Oxford City Council spokesperson said: “We are urgently looking for suitable and more settled temporary accommodation that meets the family’s needs.”
The Sudanese community in Oxford has been among those critical of the government’s response to the crisis.
With the British Consulate in Khartoum shut, and evacuation flights to the UK over, the government currently encourages evacuees travelling to Saudi Arabia and Egypt to contact the embassies in the country on arrival.
Source : BBC
