Tom Gaisford

REFUGEE Week encourages compassion and inclusion, celebrates the contributions of refugees and asylum seekers, and sheds light on the reasons people are forced to flee their homes. Two debut novelists offer timely meditations on the UK asylum system and advocate a more compassionate approach.

In Sanctuary, Tom Gaisford, a barrister in immigration and asylum law, critiques Britain’s dehumanising immigration removal centres. His protagonist, Alex Donovan, a refugee lawyer with a passion for justice, uncovers corruption among those in power. Meanwhile, Tawseef Khan’s Determination explores how Home Office policies alienate vulnerable people and reveals the lengths asylum seekers have to go in order to be believed.

Tawseef was inspired by Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, set in Southern Pakistan. “The novel-in-stories format blew my mind – the way it shifted perspectives, from the landowner, to the mistress, to the cook, to the security guard,” he recalls, and immediately thought about attempting something similar with an immigration context. As a human rights activist and immigration solicitor, it’s a world he knows well.

Tom’s idea for Sanctuary came while queuing at Stansted Airport: “What if a refugee lawyer claimed asylum?” Alex does just that and ends up in an immigration removal centre. Tom didn’t want to reproduce his clients’ stories directly – “That would be an abuse of power,” he says. “But to take the things I knew about the system and craft my own characters and stories felt right.”

At the heart of Determination is Jamila, who inherits her father’s law firm. Tawseef chose to write from a female perspective to distance himself from the protagonist. “I was uncomfortable with the inevitable assumption that I was writing about myself. As I redrafted, I realised that I was writing a woman’s story. I was interested in what it meant for Jamila to inherit her father’s firm as a woman; what her family and clients expected of her.”

Tawseef enjoyed giving his other characters room to speak for themselves: “There’s power and dignity in that, and maybe it can influence us to understand refugees as complex individuals, rather than as fodder for political discourses.”

Tawseef Khan

He adds: “Writing is first and foremost an act of empathy and imagination.”

Tom agrees. “A story allows us to transcend our surroundings, concerns and biases; typically, we go on a journey with the protagonist and, like her, return changed by events. The scope for fostering empathy and compassion is limitless.”

While writing Sanctuary, Tom developed an eerie prescience: “As domestic and regional immigration policy got tougher, I would finish a scene, only to witness it play out in real life a short while later. Tired of the Home Office frustrating my plot, I decided to invent something so unspeakable that it could never truly happen. Then, to my horror, it did…”

His experience as a barrister – drafting, advocacy and case-building skills – helped him to construct narrative, dialogue and plot: “I’ve always felt a pull towards storytelling, so the leap from lawyer to novelist was more of a hop.”

Tawseef also recognises how the rigour of legal writing can help when creating fiction: “As a solicitor, I’m always trying to present my argument clearly and simply. I spend a lot of time with my clients and get to know them in a novelistic fashion – I learn about their thoughts and fears, the bits of their past that haunt them and how they understand themselves. And that is the stuff that animates good fiction, isn’t it?”

In Sanctuary, Spain represents artistic freedom, a foil for legal London, while Determination foregrounds South Asian culture. Tawseef wanted to reflect the diversity of immigrants in Britain, but questioned whether he could do justice to a character who didn’t share his background. “It came down to authenticity; I wanted to present South Asian characters without hangups about their identities,” he explains.

Both books examine Britain’s hostile environment. Tawseef focuses on 2012, the toll on staff at Jamila’s law firm and the clients they represent. “I saw up close how Theresa May changed the immigration system: increasing visa application fees, introducing 50-60-page application forms, restrictions on the right to work or rent a house. I could see the effect this was having on our clients, and the pressure it put on immigration solicitors. She was sowing the seeds for where we are now, where immigration lawyers are being attacked, so I had to write about that. May’s legacy is my novel!”

Tom’ story is anchored in the troubling emphasis on profit over humanity: “Needless to say, the picture that emerged was a deeply troubling one.”

Have things improved? He’s not optimistic. “Take Brooke House [an immigration removal centre]. Despite the explosive 2017 BBC Panorama exposé and a six-year inquiry resulting in multiple findings of abuse, a report by the HM Chief Inspector last year concluded that it was less safe than it had been two years earlier. I suspect the underlying reason is our failure to prioritise detainees’ wellbeing – betrayed, perhaps, by the large profits made by the security companies who run our immigration removal centres.”

Yet neither book is overly bleak. Tom insists “Sanctuary is a story about love in all its forms: eros (the relationship between the protagonists); charity (their vocation to help the vulnerable); affection (their respective relationships with their families); friendship (the bonds and binds they have with others close to them).”

Despite the cruelty of the system, Tawseef believes “people find ways to experience joy and happiness. It’s an act of resistance, isn’t it? To not allow yourself to be totally crushed by any system that has a hold over your life. There had to be space for humour, love, beauty, music.”

He hopes that Determination will foster a deeper understanding of how the asylum system works.

“My one wish is that we start to overhaul the anti-migrant narrative in Britain – we need more people to speak out and make a positive case for immigration – because the cruelty of the system is performative. It’s about satisfying the segments of our society that enjoy the idea of the system being ‘hard’ on immigrants.”

Tom agrees: “Most solutions begin with treating their safety and wellbeing as a priority. This means addressing the root causes of flight – economic disparity, conflict and climate change.”

Readers can help, he suggests, by supporting refugee charities and associated campaigns, such as Refugee Action, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and North West London Law Centres.

These thought-provoking novels illuminate the reality for people caught in the UK’s asylum system – the hostility they endure and the injustices they face – and underscore our shared humanity.

• Sanctuary. By Tom Gaisford. Cinto Press, £17.99
• Determination. By Tawseef Khan. Footnote Press, £16.99