Fiona's Story

My name is Fiona Pinoya.

I am a refugee from Uganda.

When I was fifteen years old I was abducted by a friend of my father and forced to marry him. I remember that day very well. It was the day I finished my high school exams. He picked me up from the gates of my boarding school. He told me we were going to meet my parents in Kampala. But my parents weren’t there. He kept me in his house for one month, telling me my parents were coming to join us soon. When my parents found me they thought I had run away with him, they were very angry. They thought I had brought shame on the family and forced me to marry him. This man was more than twice my age. I hated him, and I was afraid of him.

When I was seventeen, my husband was murdered by government troops.

One night, at two o’clock in the morning, we were woken by a banging on the window. A man called from outside and told my husband he was needed in the office straight away. They wouldn’t even let him change out of his pyjamas. He left. He said ‘I’ll see you later’ but I never saw him again. When he didn’t come back home I started looking for him. I went to where he worked and was told that twenty-eight people had disappeared from the city, and that they were probably in prison. My husband was abducted because he was a member of the former government of Milton Oboto. I kept asking questions to find out what had happened to him. Finally, one man at the prison said to me

‘all I can tell you is that a group of prisoners tried to escape. Most of them were shot, some were caught, some were buried alive, some were thrown in the water, some were burned in tyres. I don’t know whether your husband was one of those who was shot, or one of those who was buried alive, or one of those who were burned inside a tyre.’

When I was 18 I was abducted by rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army.

When I found out that my husband was dead I went back to my parents house in the village. One night rebel soldiers from the Lord’s Resistance Army came. They forced me to walk for nine miles with my six-month-old daughter on my back. But they didn’t know that my Uncle was part of another section of the Lord’s Resistance Army. So my younger brother got on his bicycle and rode fourteen miles as fast as he could to get my Uncle to tell them to bring me back. When he arrived he argued with the rebels, but finally they let me go. I knew I had to get out of Uganda. If I’d stayed I faced three possible futures: either I would be abducted by the rebels again and forced to live as a slave, or I would be taken by government forces and killed like my husband or I would have been inherited by my husband’s brother.

It is tradition in our culture that when your husband dies your brother of your husband will inherit you. Whether you love them or not they will take you as a wife. When you’re a woman you don’t have a say. If you refuse, they will take you by force and your family will not have a say. If you still refuse, they maim you or kill you. I went straight to the capital city, to Kampala. Through bribery I managed to get a passport and bought a flight ticket. I didn’t care where I went, I just had to escape. The ticket they gave me said Entebbe to Heathrow. I thought Heathrow could be in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi or Congo, any next-door country. When the plane transited in Nairobi I asked the airport staff ‘Where is this Heathrow?’ That was when I found out that Heathrow was not in Africa at all…it was in Europe, England.

I arrived at Heathrow in December wearing a thin chiffon dress. I was freezing.

The first few months were very lonely. When you come from an extended family and you come to a country where people don’t talk to each other - even your neighbour you may not know for months - it was very difficult to start making friends. It was cold, I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t know where to buy African food. Then one day a lady called Jackie McLoughlin came to my door. She said she was from an organisation called Refugee Network Sutton. She introduced me to some other Ugandan girls. I made friends and went on a trip organised by Refugee Network to the seaside. That was when I first tasted Fish and Chips.

Refugee Network Sutton helped me to study. Jackie enrolled me on an IT and English course at Carshalton College. Another lady noticed how I dress, that I always take care and look smart. She said ‘Fiona, you should be a fashion designer’ and I thought, yeah, I think I can do that. So she helped me to apply for Fashion and Textiles at Croydon College. I went on to do a BA in Arts and Fashion Design at the University of Sussex. Even then Refugee Network Sutton continued to help. They got me equipment like a sewing machine, a computer and portfolio to store my work.

The people at Refugee Network Sutton are like family to me. They supported me, they encouraged me, they gave me self-esteem.

Srikanthan's Story

My name is Srikanthan Sivarajah

I am a refugee from Sri Lanka

One day when I was out fishing with my Uncle our boat was attacked by the Sri Lankan Navy. They were firing at us with machine guns. My Uncle was killed on the spot and I was shot several times in the stomach. I fainted from the pain and when I woke up I found I was on a different boat surrounded by members of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). They took me to their camp and treated my injuries. The leader of the camp asked me to join them. I agreed and was given weapons training. During my time serving the LTTE I was injured by gunshots in my shoulder, hand and head. Because I didn’t receive proper treatment my injuries became incurable and I can’t move my left hand or shoulder even today. In 2002 the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government signed a ceasefire agreement. The LTTE gave me a short period of leave to see my family. While I was at home I fell in love with a girl from my village and we got married.

When the LTTE asked me to resume my duties I told them I wouldn’t. I told them I wanted to stay with my wife and that I couldn’t fight because of my injuries, but they wouldn’t listen. They put me in prison for two and half months. When I was released they made me do office work. After a few months, I had the opportunity to escape and I went to my wife’s house. I stayed with her in hiding, supported by her relatives and by charities who came to the area after the Tsunami in 2004. This was the year we had our first child, a baby boy. His sister was born a year later.

After a change of government in 2006, the government started targeting LTTE members, their families, supporters and anyone linked to them. I was very afraid. If the LTTE found me I would be severely punished for running away, and would be in great danger in the heart of the fighting. If I was caught by government forces I would be killed. My wife’s family raised the money to pay an agent to get me out of Sri Lanka. I travelled to Negombo Airport with the agent. He told me to follow him through the immigration control without talking to anyone. When we arrived in England I called my cousin who lives in London and he came to pick me up.

After I was granted refugee status I applied for family reunion and my wife and children came to join me. My cousin helped us find a house but couldn’t afford to support me now that my family had arrived. Me and my wife went to RMNS and saw the advice worker Anna. She helped us to apply for benefits including Disability Living Allowance. When we get any letters we don’t understand we take them to her and she explains what they mean and helps us reply. Anna invited us to the free English classes at RMNS. I go every week and my language is improving.

I have terrible memories of what I saw in combat with the LTTE. I can’t sleep at night even though the doctor has given me sleeping tablets. Anna suggested that counselling might help. She arranged for me to meet a therapist at Sutton Counselling, now I see her every week.

To protect Srikanthan's identity, his name has been changed. This video clip puts his story in context. The full length film: Sri Lanka's Killing Fields can viewed here.

Thiyalini's Story

My name is Thiyalini Srikanthan.

I am a refugee from Sri Lanka.

I’ve never heard my father speak. When my mother was pregnant with me he got throat cancer and lost his voice. He had a pipe in his throat. My parents’ lives were very hard. My mother worked on a market stall and looked after my father. We didn’t have electricity. One day, me and my sister were making a table when she knocked over a gas lamp. The oil splashed onto her face and body and caught alight. She was so beautiful. Her whole body was burned.

During the civil war our village was often bombed. My friend’s house, three doors away from mine, was bombed. They were all killed. I saw their limbs on the road on my way home from school.

My husband grew up in the same village as I did. He was nine years older than me and had many injuries from fighting in the LTTE army. My parents didn’t want me to marry him but I loved him. He’s a good man. In the end they said ‘it’s your life, you can choose’. When we married he was in hiding from the LTTE because they wanted him to go back. He had to move away because they came to our village to look for him. He left when I was pregnant with our second child. I didn’t know where he had gone because it was dangerous for him to contact me. Sometimes I got calls from someone saying he was my husband asking me where I was. But I couldn’t be sure it was him. It could have been the LTTE looking for him, or the Sri Lankan army. It was very dangerous for me in my village.

The LTTE fighters and the Sri Lankan Army raped many Tamil girls and took their children. I couldn’t stay. But I needed permission from the Sri Lankan army to take the boat from Jaffna to Colombo. I was afraid. I tried to make myself look dirty before I spoke to them so they wouldn’t try to rape me. I didn’t tell them about my husband. There were many other people trying to make the same journey and we all had to wait to find out whether we could leave. We had nowhere to sleep except the road. Even if we had money we couldn’t buy food because the soldiers refused to sell us anything. I had brought some rice and sugar with me and we survived on this, eating a little of it each day. Those who ran out of food ate fruit from the trees. On the fifteenth day they let me and my children leave.

In Colombo I arranged passports and we went straight to India. At first a kind relative of my husband let us stay with her. But after twenty-five days she told us that she couldn’t keep us any longer. So we had to go to a refugee camp called Rameswaran. In the camp they gave us clothes and some food but it was not a home, people called it jail. There were thirty-five people sharing three rooms and three toilets. There was no running water, just a well. The roof was made of leaves, it leaked and didn’t protect us from the wind blowing off the sea. I was so glad when I found a job looking after elderly and sick people. With this money I was able to rent a room. After three years living in India my husband made contact with his relatives, who told me he had gone to England. My sister sent money to him to pay for a lawyer and he arranged for me and the children to join him. I went to the British Embassy in Madras to get the stamps in our passports.

When I arrived in England I was very happy. My life changed forever. Straight away I was certain I want to live here. There are lots of friendly Sri Lankan people where I live in Merton. My children go to swimming classes. My husband encouraged me to go to Merton College to learn English. On my first day I was very scared. Everyone was white. I couldn’t speak to them, but I’m much better now.