Julia (not her real name) is 17.
Her mum had a heart problem and died and she doesn’t know who her real father is. A man brought her to the UK and when they arrived he told her to tell Immigration that she was his daughter.
When she arrived she couldn’t read or write and the man brought her to Brixton and left her there alone. She came to the Refugee Council but it was shut so she had to walk the streets of Brixton all night because she was afraid to sleep rough.
She came back to the Refugee Council in the morning and she comes back now for support, to use the washing machine and if she needs something like shampoo.
There is a problem with her case for asylum because Social Services don’t believe that she is only 17. They think she is 18 and therefore an adult. Her lawyer is taking her to the hospital to check her age by looking at her teeth and various other indicators.
She is living in a hotel in Clapham Common. She is the only teenager living there and she has to share a bathroom with a man. The door doesn’t lock so she is very nervous.
Sometimes she is very sad. She goes to Brixton Hill School but at the school there are lots of people with babies or girls who talk about their husbands, so she doesn’t have many friends.
She has been in the UK for seven months and she doesn’t know anyone else from Ghana. She likes to smile and she comes to the Refugee Council every day between 9 and 5 because she has no friends at the hotel where she lives.
She likes the girls’ group because they can draw, paint nails and practice putting on make up.
Not very long ago the police came to the hotel and were asking lots of questions.
