It's in our nature not to sting

Shameem Sadiq Tang, Campaigner, talks about Survivors Speak OUT evidence session for the Asylum Inquiry

We always thought giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee for their Asylum Inquiry would be challenging but we didn't realise just how challenging it would be until we got there.

On Tuesday 25 June, Serge (Survivors Speak OUT network member), Kolbassia (network Coordinator) and I trotted off suited and booted to Westminster to meet the Committee. We arrived at Portcullis House (home of MPs) and got through their airport style security in good time. Our session was taking place in private and Serge was prepped and ready to represent the network's perspective of the asylum system in the UK.

Survivors Speak OUT decided that the group's evidence (collective experiences of the asylum system) would be given rather than the personal experience of one member - a group of voices is stronger than a single one and perhaps more importantly, being questioned and asked to recount difficult experiences again and again is traumatic and sometimes, intrusive.

To say that this was not a challenge for the Committee would be wrong but they took it well and I think tried to respect the voice of the network. Serge was asked about his past torture by the Chair of the Committee. That was clearly very difficult for him to answer. Imagine if you were asked about one of the darkest moments in your life be it by strangers or even friends – can you imagine? I don't think I want to and I know I don't have Serge's bravery.

Serge ploughed through the short session and spoke about the network's experience of surviving without support of any kind, about feeling disbelieved by immigration officials, about the 'robotic and intimidating' Detained Fast Track system, and about the reality of feeling suicidal when you think you have no way out and nowhere to go. It was hard to hear let alone hard to talk about yet all based on first-hand accounts of network members.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Serge handled this all so well. Before his torture he was very successful in his home country and I'm sure well equipped to handle challenging situations.

I asked Kolbassia about his thoughts on the day. He told me a story about a monk and his student. It goes like this: A monk and his student were washing their bowls in a river when they noticed a scorpion drowning. The monk grabbed the scorpion only to be bitten. The monk let go. This repeated several times until the monk eventually helped the scorpion by rescuing it with a leaf. The student asked 'why must you continue to help the scorpion when you know its nature is to sting.' 'I won't change my nature even though the scorpion's nature is different to mine', said the monk, 'to save it is my nature'.

The moral of Kolbassia's story: Survivors Speak OUT will not lose their nature because they've confronted difficulty. That's why the network speaks out so that hopefully one day other people will not face the struggles that they have faced.

The full transcript of SSO's evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee is available here.