Family flee Colombian cartel and hope they'll seek asylum in Kent

KentOnline / KMTV

A family who fled to Kent from Colombia after being threatened by a murderous drugs cartel fear they will be killed if a Home Office decision to send them back is not overturned.

Transcript

00:00Well, we're here at an undisclosed location at the hotel where Luisa is staying, all to

00:04meet her and find out more about her experiences.

00:07Hi Luisa, thank you so much for having us, lovely to meet you.

00:15We sat down to talk about her difficult situation, having to move her whole life and her three

00:20daughters more than 5,000 miles across the globe.

00:24Thank you for joining me Luisa, could I first start by asking you what the situation was

00:27like back in your home country of Colombia?

00:30Yeah, the thing is my husband is a police officer and he works in an area in Colombia

00:36and in this area some groups operate with narcotraffic, stealing drugs, kidnapping and

00:43things like that and for his work he receives some threats and this is the reason that we

00:48are here.

00:49Now she's been here in Kent since 2023 and has been applying for asylum this entire time.

00:55The process starts with the first interview and after that we wait for almost one year

01:01for the second interview.

01:03We received the answer from the Home Office on the 2nd of January this year and they refused

01:09our claim so the next step is the appeal.

01:13She says people fail to understand the impact that the asylum process and the reality of

01:18leaving your home has.

01:20What do you miss about Colombia?

01:22My life, my family, my food, my work.

01:27I don't have the opportunity to work as a nurse.

01:30Despite missing her home, she's determined to make the most of a life in England, securing

01:35a concrete future for her family.

01:37This is my vision board, this is our last picture together as a family and I put the

01:43picture and I put this on the Big Ben.

01:45This is my goal to one day stay together here and my Colombian flags, some degrees

01:53for me and my children.

01:55You mentioned that there were some mental health problems that you and the family were

01:58having.

01:59Are you comfortable talking about that?

02:00Yeah.

02:01The thing is in my country I never had any mental health problems and my daughter never

02:05had any problems like that.

02:07But here with all of this process is really difficult.

02:11I am being diagnosed with PTS, it's post-traumatic stress, something like that, and I am under

02:19antidepressants.

02:20For Luisa and her family, this is reality.

02:24Moving from Colombia all the way down here to Kent can be a huge change, especially as

02:28the asylum claims can take a long time to process.

02:32So for now, all they can do is wait and hope for the best.

02:36This music is like a different vision of everything.

02:40It just gives me hope and calm.

02:45This music changed my life.

02:54Finn McDermott, for KMTV.

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