The 2024 Riots Six Months On: A Conversation with Ibrahim

The feeling was mixed. I was disappointed because I believed that I arrived in a safe and secure country after making a long way to get here.

But, I also thought first-hand about those who help us in teaching us about life here, whether in college or outside it, starting from Baca employees to Loughborough citizens who make an effort to help us and integrate us with them in our new life like the people who just let us play football with their children. I have said within myself that there is something else. These people are not like those who welcomed us and love us and help people.

I remember when I had just arrived here, they let us play in for example, in a local football club for football and to go college at Baca College but then also to bigger local colleges. The teachers there know us, they know me. English is not my first language and they try to help me to explain more, let us ask a lot of questions and these people try and they help me a lot. Then I thought no, that's not the people who I know who I saw online. There is something wrong.

I think the other feeling which is very strong is there's no English people who have lived with people like me for three years and that know us who would do this so this helped calm me a little and I thought okay it would be fine. But, it was a very, very dangerous feeling at first when you just thought about these things.

I was concerned about myself because I was afraid that I would not find safety here and also that I am in the only country in Europe where I feel safe if it happens that I face a problem here I do not have the opportunity to leave because it is the only hope I have and the last.

Because from the first day of my time in Loughborough and in the United Kingdom I only felt welcome from the community and their assistance through living, studying, and football activities with their children. This made me to believe that they would not accept these problems in the country, and this is what reassured me.

I think I was just so afraid that I would not be safe because things were not safe with the riots in some communities in the UK. However, I've got experience and have been throughout lots of communities and I know that these people do not represent this community I know and live in. As I have already said, in Loughborough everyone is open and always people they just try to help, especially here. In the community here people accept us, they always try to help us, they volunteer to help us and by remembering this, that made me feel more like it will be fine.

I came to the UK because I thought it would be a safe country. I thought that people would live here all together and that it would be a good, safe life for me. In my mind I was just thinking again about what would happen if this happen again what I will do? I was thinking no way because this is the last country in Europe that I just thought would be safe for me. I have no option. What should I do? I just thinking, no, I do not have an option. I was just afraid. What I will do? But, the good thing for me was that the riots did not come to my local place. That made me feel happy, safe and that are good things.

This is through seminars and cultural lectures. Yes, it is possible that there is a part of society that does not know us that has the right to ask and know that we are also people with different cultures and different languages trying to live and integrate into English society to be a large, diverse and united society.

I think that the people who were rioting, they have done the wrong thing and it is a problem. But the only thing that I believe is they have the right to know who we are. That's absolutely fine. And, I think it would be a good thing to be safe for the people who were rioting know us. It would be good for them and good for refugees and people like us as well. People can come all together in a safe place anywhere like a church, for example. Everyone in the community can come there and we can all talk about our cultures. By talking, these people can know us: we have culture, we have language, we are part of tribes, we have different food. I hope this would help them realise we are just people you know. They will understand us. Mix everyone together and we will be bigger and beautiful and we will be safe. It's something special to mix together and to be a big and nice community. The people who rioted, they don’t know us, they don’t know who refugees like us are. There are people though who know us, who love us, like people at Baca. There is love over here. Every day they help us by helping us learn the language, the rules of this country, they teach us how to do this. I think this would be the best thing, just to allow all people: rioters and refugees to come in one place and explain and meet each other.

Also, I think something the rioters need to understand is refugees bring skills. We have skills. For me, for example, I will try to be a journalist in the future and I will help the community here by bringing the news from here, helping share the problems and supporting people. And there are other ones like my friend he wants to be a doctor and that's where we can help other people. Everyone has skills, they bring skills. We think carefully about our lives and what we want to do but we need a chance to do this.

Big thanks for them because this life is simple for us young people at Baca. Everyone here is without their mum and without their family. They are just one person and that person they have lots of pressure in their heads from thinking about the past. Everyone is human. When we arrive they don’t have a house to live in or just a place to stay. This would have a big effect on us if we didn’t have Baca and it adds huge problems to the brain. I know many young people who have lost their mind. I know many examples of this. And, these young people you know they just want a simple, safe life.

It starts with Baca offering a safe home, education, a place to make friends and they save lives because of this. Baca they will save your life and you will feel happy and will live very happily in this life. So, if you help Baca you have done something very big and this will come back to you or your family or someone you love. It's a very, very important and big thing. You can't imagine, it's a very safe place to restart your life and protect young people who have nothing. If we had to go and sleep outside, it can be in dangerous place. By giving young refugees like me a safe place after they have been through war which is tough, these people at Baca they are very important.

So I have taken part in activities like football with a local football club, activities at college and other things in the community. This makes me very happy because for me when I am alone, I think too much but when we are together, we can do anything. Whether we study together, do sport together or other activities that build community and new friends, all the new friends feel like family to me. And this is very good, it will help my mind. I feel good, happy and relaxed, being with community takes more deep pressure out for me. It is good for me. That's why always I try to come to Baca to see people, to go to play football – these people they make me feel very happy and relaxed. I think that's what life is about, isn't it? The goal is to feel at peace and happy and safe. That is all people need.

To me, I feel like there's freedom. There is freedom being part of a new community. There is safety because when someone tells you come and join us, I then try to understand the different community a different group and they understand me.

It can be difficult for me because I come from a country where there’s only one or two groups of people. In the UK, there are a big mix of people who are part of different groups, they may follow different religions, have different nationalities but when you are part of the community everyone they tell you welcome which makes you like the people here and feel like you are living in peace. People are free. People are welcome. I try to understand and be more knowledgeable to understand different groups to make sure there’s not any option for misunderstanding in the future. Misunderstanding effects everything that happened with the riots. So, with welcome and getting to know each other that makes me feel very like safe, happy and free and like there’s a lot of good in the world and that makes me happy.