Refugee Voices - Kian

Kian's life in Iran was disrupted when the police discovered that he had been practising Christianity in a home church rather than practising the state religion of Shia Islam, and thus he was forced to flee the country as he began to fear for his life. After being smuggled into Turkey, he then travelled onwards to the UK, where he arrived in July of 2025. The first thing he noticed was the kindness of the police force; he had been used to being treated badly without just cause by the police in Iran, and so the genuine willingness to help shown by police in the UK came as a welcome surprise. He first made contact with Herts Welcomes Refugees through representatives of the charity who came to his hotel to give English lessons and advice on daily matters: without this help, he said that accomplishing basic tasks would be ten times harder due to the sheer volume of forms and documents that one is required to fill.
 
One of the key difficulties that Kian encountered following the approval of his asylum claim was opening a bank account. Many banks did not accept the refugee hotel as a valid address, and only after visiting five separate banks was he able to find one that let him open an account. Kian admitted that without the encouragement of charity representatives, he would have become demotivated, and he mentioned this as a common trend among refugees. Living in the migrant hotel in uncertainty (in the time between your interview with the Home Office and a decision being made on your asylum claim) can sap one's energy, and with the difficulty of everyday life in a new country, many migrants struggle to accomplish basic tasks and become depressed. Kian also foresees that adjusting to driving on the left will be difficult.
 
Kian is determined to continue to improve his English so that he can obtain the English certificate that is required for him to find work. He wishes to join a plumbing course to become a qualified plumber (a job which he had in Iran) and to work as a mechanic fixing motorbikes, a hobby he frequently enjoyed back home; you can see him and his little dog in the photograph.  Kian adds: "This image reminds us that in some countries, both free-thinking humans and animals are sometimes deprived of the right to live."