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EDITIONS
Tuesday, 3 December, 2002, 12:51 GMT
Asylum seekers: Our stories
Refugees fleeing the conflict in Sierra Leone
Thousands of women and children have fled Africa
Zara and Wofa (fictitious names) are asylum seekers living in Glasgow.

A few years ago they left behind the civil strife in Africa with the hopes of a brighter future in Scotland.

Their lives, and their children's lives, are plagued by constant attacks, both physical and verbal, by a small minority of people living on the estate.

Here, they give details of some of their experiences.


Wofa: "Some people they throw stones at us, they are spitting, verbal abuses, all sorts of abuses.

"One day a boy tried to throw a bottle at me. He was ready to throw it and then a lady came up the block and she saw him.

"He didn't bother to run away, he kept on following me until I shouted at him that I would call the police and then he ran."


The boys got a small whisky bottle and set it on fire and pushed it through their letter box

Zara

Zara: "My teenage daughter gets called 'nigger' at school. But she doesn't get angry, she smiles and laughs and said, 'yeah, boys'.

"In the summer young girls threw water balloons at us, they were laughing at us."

Wofa: "My friend was attacked by two young ladies. When she reached her door they would not let her pass and they attacked her.

"When she tried to pass them they pulled her scarf. My friend had a baby in a pram too, just one month old, and the ladies they pushed the pram away.

"When she got into her flat she called me and I went to see her and we called the police."

Park out of bounds

Zara: "My friend was with her daughter in a lift and two boys were in there with them and they had a lighter.

"They set fire to the girl's jacket, in the lift. She is just eight-years-old.

"A few days later the boys got a small whisky bottle and set it on fire and pushed it through their letter box, the woman never reported it."

Wofa: "The parks around here, it is as if they don't exist to us. We can't use them, my kids can't go there because they have been attacked several times.

"It's been a while since I took them there."


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