Faisal* (16) has been placed in a hotel with adults (Picture: Refugee Council)
I walked into my bedroom and there was a much older man there.
I didn’t actually know his age and we can’t even speak the same language.
He is a stranger to me and we have no choice but to live together.
This is because I’m in asylum seeker accommodation and the Home Office thinks I’m 26… but I’m actually 16 and not supposed to be housed with adults.
Sometimes I feel so anxious about the whole situation that I get into bed and hide under the blanket to cry.
I miss my mum – and I have never felt so lost.
I’m from Eritrea, in East Africa, and my life there was simple. I’d play with friends and attend school – it was a normal childhood.
But as I reached the age of 14, I started to notice the adults around me going to the military to fight. Some were getting injured or even killed, while others moved into refugee camps.
This is because there was a terrible war in Tigray, near to where I lived, and this made life very dangerous for us. There are no elections and no freedom for ordinary people – you can be forced to fight in the war even before you have a chance to finish school, and those who refuse are put in prison.
So I knew I had to seek a better future and look for safety elsewhere. It was very hard to leave my friends and family – especially my mum.
I worry about my family and the people I left behind, and it’s hard to contact them or know if they are safe
Like many young people in my country, I had no documents so I travelled in secret to escape the government.
By foot and sometimes in trucks, I crossed the border to Sudan, then onto Libya and France by boat.
It took more than a year, but I was fortunate to meet people who wanted to help me because I was a kid on my own. They gave me food and helped me to cross the sea.
After crossing France by land, I arrived in Dunkirk. Then came the dangerous and frightening boat crossing to the UK.
On this journey, I was soaked with water and there was a strong smell of petrol. We thought we could drown.
But as soon as we reached Dover, I was full of joy – happy to have escaped death.
At the same time, I was exhausted. In fact, I was very tired and barely conscious because of the journey and because of what I’d been through.
Once in the UK, police escorted us to be interviewed by Home Office officials, which is when they asked my age. So I told them the truth – that I’m 16 years old.
I’m stressed about this false age they gave me (Picture: Refugee Council)
Then they put me in a group with others who were underage – familiar faces who I saw on my journey. They gave me a wristband to show I was under 18.
They called us into the interview rooms one-by-one. But when they got to me, they didn’t find an interpreter who spoke my specific language, Tigrinya.
They said this was because there was no one available. I said I could speak some Arabic, but the interpreter I got wasn’t the same dialect and I didn’t understand the accent.
I don’t remember the specific questions they asked me, but it was made all the more confusing because I was exhausted from the journey and the language wasn’t clear.
After the interview, they just cut off the wristband they had given me and gave me a paper saying my age was over 20.
They told me I am 26. I don’t know how they chose this age and they didn’t tell me why either.
They gave me a number for a charity called Migrant Help and I think from my interpreter that they said to me: ‘You will be transferred and we will see about your issue there’.
I was very shocked. How could they say that? It all happened so quickly that there was no time to try to convince them otherwise.
They told me I am 26. I don’t know how they chose this age and they didn’t tell me why either
When I reached the hotel in South Yorkshire, I opened the door to my bedroom, and found an adult there. I told the manager I can’t stay in that room with an adult.
So they gave me my own room and it was a better solution for a few weeks, but still very difficult.
These first few weeks were scary because the hotel was – and still is – very crowded and there is nothing to do or no one to help me.
Unfortunately, now they have brought another adult to share the room with me.
The hotel is full of adults, everyone is smoking, and living with older people makes me feel stressed. The Refugee Council came to visit my hotel, and I asked them to help me get my real age back, and they told me a lawyer will handle the case. But still there’s no progress.
Of course, I miss my family, the things I used to do, my friends and everything in Eritrea. I worry about my family and the people I left behind, and it’s hard to contact them or know if they are safe.
These are difficult days. I just wish I could go to school and make friends like everyone else my age. I want to continue my education so that I can learn English.
I’m stressed about this false age they gave me. I see my friends who have had their true age accepted so I feel really depressed about it.
The hotel is full of adults, everyone is smoking, and living with older people makes me feel stressed
They can go to school and they get support from a social worker if they need help – like seeing a doctor or any other problem they have. People are more understanding with them.
I will never accept this false age they’ve given me. I don’t like the feeling that they’ve changed something about me – it’s not me.
On top of that, I have nothing to do and it makes my mental health worse.
I’ve been trying to get legal help, to get my age corrected, but it’s been more than four months with no change.
I dream of being a professional footballer, but I’d be happy to become a barber, or I might work in IT.
I really hope that other children coming to the UK as asylum seekers after me don’t have to go through what I’ve been through. I hope the Home Office gives them their true age.
But most importantly, I really hope speaking about this will help other people in the same situation.
As told to Sonia Lambert at the Refugee Council. Faisal* is not the real name of the author.
Hundreds of refugee children who reach the UK are being wrongly assessed as adults, and sent to adult accommodation or detention, where they can face abuse, exploitation and neglect.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing James.Besanvalle@metro.co.uk.
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