Advent asylum podcast 1: Amar Hassan Albadawi

Through Advent, we'll be posting short interviews each Sunday with asylum-seekers who've been forced into destitution, and remembering that Jesus was born to a refugee couple. The first interview is with Amar Hassan Albadawi from Sudan.Amar talks about his disappointment at how his asylum application was handled, and the distrust and isolation caused by the constant threat of deportation: “I go for interview without solicitor, without advice, without anything... After the interview, I get letter to leave the country, and my support was stopped without any reason... They can come to check any time because they have a key... and if they find that you have a friend in the house, they stop you working and take the house from you." Church Action on Poverty’s Living Ghosts campaign, part of the Still Human Still Here coalition, is calling for an end to policies which force asylum-seekers into destitution. The interview was carried out by Hazel Healy in Northwest England during summer 2007. Some names have been changed to protect identities. Using podcasts

• The podcast is an excellent resource to use in churches and campaigning groups. Listening to these stories can give a real sense of the difficulties and problems faced by people living with poverty, and highlight the issues CAP is trying to address in its campaigns.
• Feel free to use the podcasts as part of presentations on poverty issues, in church services or group meetings.
• If you - or your church or organisation - have a blog or website, you can include the Advent asylum podcast RSS feed. This will display the podcast, and update when new episodes are added. (Your web host or blog provider should be able to tell you more about using RSS feeds.)
• Please acknowledge that the podcast has been produced by Church Action on Poverty. The interview in this episode was carried out by Hazel Healy.