When Naima Chaudhry was studying for her master’s degree at UCD, she did not tell her classmates that she lived in a direct provision centre. The Pakistani student already felt “like the odd one out” and didn’t want to make the situation more awkward.
"The other students just assumed I was an international student and I never really talked about it. I did tell them I'd lived in Ireland for three years but I didn't mention direct provision. I felt they wouldn't understand. I did tell one friend and she had no idea what I was talking about.
“It wasn’t that I wanted to hide, I just wasn’t comfortable enough to open up to everyone about my personal life.”
She was 20 and living in the city of Islamabad in Pakistan when her mother died in 2009, three years after being diagnosed with motor neuron disease. "She had to take early retirement, and I became her full-time carer, but the disease progressed really quickly. When she died I didn't know what to do with my life. I'd taken a break from school when she was sick and I'm an only child. I never saw my dad either. I just had some relatives nearby."
Her extended family immediately started pressurising her to get married. “Nobody wanted to take responsibility for me, and Asian families don’t believe a girl can be on her own. But I felt I could take responsibility for myself and I didn’t want them to marry me off.”
When an aunt living in Manchester suggested she apply for a study visa and move to England, she immediately agreed. She arrived in September 2009 and started studying for an undergraduate degree at Manchester Metropolitan. After a few years in Manchester, and having completed her studies, Chaudhry fell out with her aunt. She wanted to return to Pakistan but felt rejected by her family. She decided to travel to Ireland after a childhood friend, who had moved to Dublin with her family, suggested she come over.
“I told my friend I wanted to go back to Pakistan but she reminded me that I had no family support any more and it was impossible for a girl to live on her own in Pakistan. I didn’t know what to do so I just came here. She said her family would arrange a work permit for me through their business but that didn’t work.”
Feeling illegal
After three months in Ireland without any legal status, Chaudhry applied for asylum in April 2015. “I didn’t know anything about the asylum system or how long it would take. I just didn’t want to be in Ireland feeling illegal. I heard they’d process my application in six months but that wasn’t the case.”
She was sent to live in Clondalkin Towers direct provision centre. She counted down her first six months in the centre, expecting to leave before the end of the year. However, as she had lived in the UK before coming to Ireland, her case was sent for consideration under the Dublin III regulation – the EU law that determines which country is responsible for examining a person's asylum application. She felt extremely lonely and went through phases of depression when she discovered her asylum case would take much longer than six months.
In November 2015 she attended a meeting of the residents’ committee at the centre and ended up joining. When other residents secured their papers to remain in Ireland and moved on from the committee, Chaudhry became more active in the group, holding the position of secretary and then acting as chairwoman.
She started organising children’s activities at the centre, including book clubs and Christmas birthday parties, and set up daily information clinics for adult residents who had questions about their asylum application, applying for a medical card or finding housing after securing their status. “I started doing it because I didn’t want to think about my own situation. It was my way of coping but then I realised I actually loved helping people and it gave me peace.”
She also help set up the Dublin branch of the Sanctuary Runners club and also studied for level 5 courses and took part in a sanctuary in politics course for migrants at Trinity College Dublin to keep busy. In 2018 she secured a scholarship to study for an MSc in biotherapeutics at UCD. As she shared a room with two other women, she often stayed late in the UCD library to study, and when it came time to write her thesis, management at the direct provision centre gave her a small store room where she could work.
Leadership role
Chaudhry was just one month into her first semester at UCD when reports started to appear in the media that Clondalkin Towers centre was going to close before Christmas. Dozens of concerned residents started contacting her for more information. “People were really scared and upset, they were worried they’d be dispersed all over the country. I didn’t see myself as being in a leadership role until that point but I just had to step up and do something.”
Families were worried about moving their children in the middle of the school year while others with health conditions were concerned about not being close to a hospital. Chaudhry and her committee started campaigning with local NGOs and politicians to keep the centre open and eventually the contract was renewed.
In July 2020 she learned her case had finally passed through the Dublin III court hearing and referred back to Ireland for consideration. In March 2021 she was asked to resubmit her application and she is now awaiting her first interview with the International Protection Office.
She finally has a work permit, has stepped down from the residents’ committee and has been formally employed by Clondalkin Towers to run the homework club and children’s activities at the centre. She hopes to find work in a medical field in the future.
She has also become a born-again Christian and attends the All Nations Church on South Circular Road in Dublin, where she met Cian, who is now her fiance. After six years living in direct provision, she feels like things are finally looking up. “For so long I just wanted to have a normal life where I can work and travel. There was a time when I didn’t have anything to look forward to and I couldn’t plan for my future; that was really difficult. But things are changing now.”
