A family who fled to Kent from Colombia after being threatened by a murderous drugs cartel fear they will be killed if a Home Office decision to send them back is not overturned.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, we're here at an undisclosed location at the hotel where Luisa is staying, all to
00:04meet her and find out more about her experiences.
00:07Hi Luisa, thank you so much for having us, lovely to meet you.
00:15We sat down to talk about her difficult situation, having to move her whole life and her three
00:20daughters more than 5,000 miles across the globe.
00:24Thank you for joining me Luisa, could I first start by asking you what the situation was
00:27like back in your home country of Colombia?
00:30Yeah, the thing is my husband is a police officer and he works in an area in Colombia
00:36and in this area some groups operate with narcotraffic, stealing drugs, kidnapping and
00:43things like that and for his work he receives some threats and this is the reason that we
00:48are here.
00:49Now she's been here in Kent since 2023 and has been applying for asylum this entire time.
00:55The process starts with the first interview and after that we wait for almost one year
01:01for the second interview.
01:03We received the answer from the Home Office on the 2nd of January this year and they refused
01:09our claim so the next step is the appeal.
01:13She says people fail to understand the impact that the asylum process and the reality of
01:18leaving your home has.
01:20What do you miss about Colombia?
01:22My life, my family, my food, my work.
01:27I don't have the opportunity to work as a nurse.
01:30Despite missing her home, she's determined to make the most of a life in England, securing
01:35a concrete future for her family.
01:37This is my vision board, this is our last picture together as a family and I put the
01:43picture and I put this on the Big Ben.
01:45This is my goal to one day stay together here and my Colombian flags, some degrees
01:53for me and my children.
01:55You mentioned that there were some mental health problems that you and the family were
01:58having.
01:59Are you comfortable talking about that?
02:00Yeah.
02:01The thing is in my country I never had any mental health problems and my daughter never
02:05had any problems like that.
02:07But here with all of this process is really difficult.
02:11I am being diagnosed with PTS, it's post-traumatic stress, something like that, and I am under
02:19antidepressants.
02:20For Luisa and her family, this is reality.
02:24Moving from Colombia all the way down here to Kent can be a huge change, especially as
02:28the asylum claims can take a long time to process.
02:32So for now, all they can do is wait and hope for the best.
02:36This music is like a different vision of everything.
02:40It just gives me hope and calm.
02:45This music changed my life.
02:54Finn McDermott, for KMTV.