Routes here: written by 1625 colleagues

In celebration of Refugee Week (16 – 22 June 2025), we interviewed some of our colleagues from our Asylum and Refugee team who work with young refugees and asylum seekers.

*Adam

How long have you been working with 1625 independent people?  

10 years and 9 months 

What did you do prior to this? 

Before joining 1625, I a youth worker for 26 years in various settings including running events for young people, working in schools, working on the streets with young people and managing council youth centres. 

What is your role and briefly what does it involve?  

My role involves supporting a small team who are commissioned by both Bristol and South Glos Children and Young People Services to provide quality support to the young asylum seekers and refugees placed in their care. At any one time we can be supporting 27 young people, some who live in accommodation we manage.  I also support up to eight young people myself. This part of my role involves helping them become familiar with Bristol, support with English lessons via specialist language services/organisations and supporting them through the challenges of the Asylum application process.  There is also a lot of work supporting young people with PTSD. Most young people arrive having multiple layers of trauma – from the events that caused them to flee their home country, to the dangers faced during journey, which can involve periods of being kept as slaves, and the trauma of crossing of the English Channel and the Mediterranean. 

We work with young people from their arrival to Bristol, to them receiving a grant of refugee status which can take anywhere from one to four years or more. During this time, we will teach them independent living skills and help them find employment and their own accommodation.  When they are settled, we close their case, while ensuring they know they can still contact us for help. 

What are the nationalities of the young people you have supported? 

Afghan, Albanian, Eritrean, Iraqi, Iranian, Sudanese. 

What are the best bits of the work you do? 

Whilst often upsetting, it is a privilege to hear these young people’s stories. They often ask me to be their appropriate adult in Home Office interviews, and I get to be the one to tell them that they have received a positive Asylum decision. For many of these young people, being told to return would mean fearing for their lives – so receiving this news is truly life changing. 

They are always very respectful and thankful for the support you can offer them. 

I’m proud to work in a young people focused charity with a small team who are driven to improve the lives of all the young people we support. 

What are the challenges? 

Hearing what individual young people have been through or witnessed can take its toll. At 1625 we are mindful of vicarious trauma and there is a lot of support in place for this 

Memorable moments 

There are so many moments that make you proud or smile. 

The moment two Eritrean young people showed me an electric toothbrush costing £70 and them saying “£70? What else does it do?” 

The time during a home office interview where a young person was asked what the National anthem of his country was and him standing up and singing it. 

Seeing twin Afghan brothers reunited after over a year apart. They had fled Afghanistan together but on one stage of their journey they were placed in two different cars, and one brother was held in Turkey for eight months. 

The time a young Iranian received a phone call from a friend saying that he had been asked to translate for a newly arrived Iranian woman. This woman was trying to find her son who shared the same name.  Coincidently, beyond all odds, her son was the young person I was supporting! He had believed his mum to be dead, and they have since been reunited and now live together. 

*Name changed for privacy.