Family thriving in Glasgow after long fight to stay in UK

Once homeless, destitute and fighting for the right to stay in Scotland, she’s now an award-winner with a community to call home and thriving children.

Sufiyaan, who is to start primary school in August, was born during the long, hard period while Fathima and her husband Mohamed Farook battled for refugee status.

So was his younger sister Shasmeen.

The couple – who fled their native Sri Lanka after threats of violence – have lived in more than 15 different addresses across the UK since beginning their asylum battle, including an unheated garden shed in London. Friends and charities took them in to save them from sleeping on the streets, but they did spend one night under a bridge.

The pair were new parents when they arrived in Glasgow with baby Sufiyaan in 2016, having been offered a room by a friend of a friend.

They were finally granted refugee status and leave to remain in the UK in 2018, with their story told by both The National and The Ferret.

Now the family of four have secured a permanent address through a Glasgow housing association. That move comes not long after they were forced to leave a temporary residence provided by Glasgow City Council due to abusive neighbours.

While other households are battling January blues, Fathima is excited about the year to come. “From the beginning in the UK,” she said, “I didn’t know what I was going to do. Now there are so many options available.”

Many of those options relate to her ongoing college education. Moving from place to place, the 35-year-old used YouTube and Google to teach herself Western baking techniques and is now honing her skills at City of Glasgow College.

Her in-class excellence led to recognition from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), which named her its Lifelong Learning Candidate of the Year for 2019.

READ MORE: Future in Scotland looks sweet for budding refugee baker

That came after she developed a flowchart of stocks and sauces which has now become part of course materials, and was invited to give a lesson on how she creates show-stopping cakes, such as the legal-themed creation made for her solicitor Euan McKay, of McGlashan MacKay, after winning her case.

But the win was bittersweet because her mother, who was supposed to be her plus-one at the award ceremony, was denied the chance to attend.

The Home Office rejected her visa, saying she was unlikely to return to Sri Lanka after visiting her grandchildren.

Fathima aims to make a second attempt at securing permission, and took Mohamed – who is studying for a health and fitness qualification – to collect her prize instead.

“That award is for her, it’s something she’s achieved as well,” Fathima says. “She was a single mother, my dad died when I was 10. My achievements are her achievements as well.

“My mum doesn’t want to stay here, she’s old and she can’t cope with the weather, but not to have her here, it’s hurting me.

“When they announced my name,” she remembers, “it was unbelievable. My husband was shouting, everyone was shouting. I forgot my past, I forgot everything – ‘oh my god, I did something’.

“I didn’t have any qualifications for the future. Now I’m working to do an HND. The award is like a responsibility for the future. Let’s see how far I can travel with my studies.

“Once I stop I will set up a cake bakery. Until I build that up, I’ll do some work in restaurants as a pastry chef. The children understand the trophy is something special. I’ve told them, ‘you want to get something like that’.”

Fathima says that her time in destitution changed her. “It spoiled our world,” she says. “Without that, I’d be a different person.”

If she was able to send a message back to that time, she’d have a simple message for herself. “Problems always come,” she says. “Whatever comes, ignore it and go with the flow. Think something positive, don’t think negative things because you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”