Lucy's Caseworker says, “It has been a delight to support her on this journey and see so many years of struggle eventually result in stability. Lucy can begin a new life in safety.”
Lucy is a survivor of human trafficking, domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. We have been working with Lucy for three and a half years. This is her story
Lucy was trafficked from Tanzania after being promised work in the UK. She was brought over on a domestic worker visa, but was kept in servitude and abused by her employer. When she eventually escaped, she was destitute and was sexually exploited again.
Lucy was homeless in Manchester for three years. During this time she contracted HIV and at one point attempted to take her own life. She was eventually helped by a medical charity who referred her into the National Referral Mechanism (the government’s system for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery).
She was sent to a safe house in Sheffield and that’s when Snowdrop met Lucy.
Unfortunately, Lucy received a negative Conclusive Grounds decision – this means the competent authority didn’t think Lucy had been trafficked. Then Lucy was refused asylum – this was absolutely devastating for her and led to a significant deterioration in her mental health.
Snowdrop were able to build trust with Lucy and maintain contact with her throughout her mental health crisis when she had cut off all contact with other professionals. Through building this relationship of trust, we were able to help Lucy receive medical treatment as an inpatient which led to the start of her recovery. We also found Lucy a new solicitor and gathered evidence to put towards a fresh asylum claim.
Lucy made a good initial recovery and was able to return home, but unfortunately her mental health deteriorated again during lockdown whilst her asylum claim was still uncertain. Despite the isolation of lockdown, we managed to stay in contact with Lucy and maintain that vital connection; we were able to raise the alarm again when her mental health worsened.
Thankfully, with support, Lucy made a full recovery. We supported Lucy emotionally and socially through weekly walks and IT equipment, helping to prevent a further relapse.
Finally, after lots of advocacy, including encouraging Lucy to write a letter herself to the Home Office expressing the negative impact the long wait had had on her, Lucy received her refugee status! We were all absolutely thrilled.
We helped Lucy move into temporary accommodation and then advocated for her to be allocated an appropriate permanent accommodation – this took a further 18 months to be finally agreed. Once she was settled, and Universal Credit was in place, we applied for backdated disability benefits totalling nearly £6,000.
Lucy is now settled in her flat and doing really well with her mental health. She regularly attends our community activities and ESOL classes. She has recently discovered a love of pottery through coming to one of our creative sessions.
Lucy's Caseworker says, “It has been a delight to support her on this journey and see so many years of struggle eventually result in stability as Lucy can begin a new life in safety.”
*name changed to protect client's identity