Man from Iran

The Hammersmith Law Centre will lose 60% of its funding in cuts voted for by the Tory Hammersmith and Fulham Council, which is fairly disastrous.

This site is adding interviews with people who have used the law centre for legal help and advice over the years. Law centre clients are often immigrants and people seeking asylum. They're often from places the west is hostile to: Afghanistan, Iran and so on.

If you click on the 'read more' link below, links to all other articles and interviews on this topic will appear in the menu to the right.

Here's another guy who went to the law centre for help negotiating immigration law and the Home Office. He's from Iran. He's a witty, gentle type who is almost happy to talk about life as an Middle Eastern immigrant in these delicate times. He's a little reluctant to release personal details, like his name.

'Maybe I am too paranoid,' he grins. 'You can worry too much about them saying things out there about you.'

That is true, although there are times when paranoia is probably the rational option. This guy, now greying a little, did a bit of political organising in Iran when he was younger. He seems to have come to the attention of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or the Iranian authorities, at least, as a result. 'I mean, I was helping some students, and I helped some people do some political things... um, like taking part in meetings, organising meetings... so I decided to stay here.'

He had been visiting the UK on and off for some time for medical treatment (he has heart disease and looks like it - he's very thin and looks pretty tired on it). He was fairly sure that things would have deteriorated further if he returned to Iran after his political organising came to light.

'It wasn't a good situation to go to, [back to Iran],' he says. 'I can't go back. I fear they will put me through persecution. It is difficult for me thinking like that.' He was a teacher and researcher in Iran, and has been in the UK for seven years.

He went to the Hammersmith Law Centre for help negotiating his immigration options with the Home Office - a complex process that seems to have been complicated further by his then-solicitor's problem with deadlines. He applied to stay in the UK on the basis that he was known to the Iranian authorities and likely to be threatened if he went back. His application was turned down, as they often are. He asked his then-solicitor to file an appeal, which is the usual process.

There is a fairly tight deadline for lodging appeals and new evidence, though, and the solicitor missed it.

Needless to say, he was 'very miserable' by the time he found the law centre and took his case there. 'In this situation, when nobody is helping you, when you are refused, it is a very difficult situation.' It was very hard at the beginning. They (the law centre) were very busy at the beginning, and I couldn't get through. But then I got through and I started talking, [and that's when I found out] I had been victim of a kind of victimisation, without full access to my rights, and they started helping.'

The law centre applied to the High Court to get the out-of-time appeal point sorted, and they won that. Then, they won the appeal for immigration status. The Home Office appealed that decision, but backed off in the end and withdrew its appeal in April 2007.

Does this guy think the law centre should take immigration cases like his against the Home Office, and against the political tide? 'Well, I am not a politician,' he says. 'I cannot say if it true or wrong because I am not a politician.... they [the law centre] are passionate about human rights. They have a very good reputation. People I know told me to go there.'

Of course he misses Iran, he says -'we are all like that about the place we come from.' He isn't wild about the present Iranian adminstration, but says the same goes for most governments in action at the moment. 'Governments,' he grins, 'have relationships that don't have anything to do with the people.' He expects the Iranian people to make their own history, anyway. 'It is very different from the west, but each country has its own unique perspectives. There is very good history [in Iran], very good traditions... there is a trend now, through the media: western culture and democracy is spreading throughout the world through the internet [and things like that]. People want to be free and in contact with other countries. If one government stops people from making that contact, that makes people angry. People like that contact with outside countries - a good relationship with western people.'

He does like the west, or London, at least. He think it is egalitarian. 'Outside London, you feel more lonely - no foreigners, but I don't expect people to accept all of my ideas, because they are different. London is very multicultural city. There are lots of people like you. There is a gap between rich and poor in London in terms of salary, you know, but the good things in London is the [ease with which people] mix. People mix, [no matter how much] money [they have], [or what] culture [they come from], [whether they are] educated or non-educated. They can communicate. It's not like there is a serious social classification.

'Iran is not much like that - educated people there have a good situation in society, they have power. Here, they [the rich and educated] are minorities - like the Lords.'