'Abdi', Somalia

One of the people Refugees Welcome has been in contact with longest is Abdi (anonymised). He arrived alone in Denmark in 2010 as a young man and applied for asylum. But shortly afterwards, he was admitted to a psychiatric ward because he suffered from schizophrenia. A nurse at the ward contacted RW and is still a friend and contact for Abdi.

RW attended asylum interviews together with Abdi and at the same time applied for leave to remain on humanitarian grounds. Extremely unusually, both applications were granted at almost the same time.

Abdi's family was affiliated with the radical Al-Shabaab movement, and his brother died in a suicide bombing. His father had also been killed, and Abdi refused to carry out suicide attacks. Abdi was "punished" physically because it was believed that the voices he heard (due to schizophrenia) were due to demonic possession. He will therefore not be able to return to his family and his network without risking his life.

Abdi has subsequently needed RW's help several further times. In 2020, he was refused permanent residence because he had borrowed money from his municipality for a deposit on the supported housing where he lived – even though he complied with his payment plan, paying from his modest disability pension. 

In 2021 he was suddenly summoned to an interview with the Immigration Service in Sandholm regarding his motive for asylum – they wanted to see if he was still in danger in Somalia. Naturally, he became very nervous, but fortunately the authorities decided to extend his residence permit, as they could not guarantee his safety in relation to Al-Shabaab. He is still fighting to get a permanent residence permit, as he is not able to meet the normal criteria.