I've raised £5000 to help Franklin Azolukwam with his rent arrears, which were caused by the Home Office.
Organised by Angelina Souren
Story
This morning, Man who grew up in UK wrongly told to leave country for second time was the first news item I spotted on my phone.
He's British.
He was told he was not allowed to work. Then the Home Office said it had made a mistake. Then it repeated the same mistake.
Now Mr Azolukwam has rent arrears of £5000.
The first time the Home Office sent nine police officers to his house. They kicked the door down and led him away in handcuffs. They put him in a detention centre.
For the next eight months I wasn’t allowed to work. I had to go and sign on every two weeks. I got into rent arrears. My mum had to take on another job to help me. We were frantic. We were paying solicitor fees, lawyer fees, trying to get it sorted.
EIGHT MONTHS later, the Home Office said that it had made a mistake.
So Mr Azolukwam started working again.
Shortly after he began working again, the Home Office made the same mistake and again notified him that he was here illegally and wasn't allowed to work.
What more is there to say?
Let's make sure that this guy keeps his home.
I will get in touch with him via May Bulman, the Independent journalist who interviewed him.
I have linked my Cooperative Bank account to this. (Note that I cannot link someone else's bank account to a fundraising action on JustGiving.) If any donations come in, I will post copies of my bank account statements so you can see what happens.
I don't know Mr Azolukwam but the story made me angry. The Home Office keeps making these mistakes again and again and again. It plunges people into misery and homelessness through no fault of their own.
In 2010, I lost my own rental home as a result of rent arrears after my income suddenly collapsed. (Many people didn't really believe me when I said I was in dire straits until after I actually became homeless and I found that there is no help available if you are about to lose your home.) So I know how stressful this kind of situation can be and I want to do something about it. Hopefully, people will donate so that I can.
In Britain, about 110,000 people are currently in this situation of more or less being homeless or actually being homeless.
