I met up with my refugee buddy today.
Because they don’t have any money, any possessions they have are because they’ve been given them.
Well like most people, I have way too many clothes for one person, so a big paring down ( with the help/ drive of Lizzy ) was with a view to passing stuff on to my friend. He ‘ lives ‘ in a hotel near Heathrow airport, along with a LOT of other asylum seekers/ refugees, and the arrangement is that anything he doesn’t want that I give him, he can distribute to other people that might.
I can only carry one bag at a time on my lap in my chair, but he got the first bag today.

He was telling me what it’s like in the country he fled from. If he goes back, he’s sure he’ll be killed. His family ( wife and kids ) have a police car permanently parked outside their house, and every day they are questioned as to his whereabouts. Their phone is tapped, as is any WhatsApp conversation they get. He said that the regime has an arrangement with the Chinese whereby they have the tech to tap into WhatsApp conversations… so they have to use a different internet chat, which of course they do.
Most citizens earn minimum wage, which is equivalent to £120 per month, and food shortages are getting steadily worse. People are arrested for any reason at all, and don’t have the right to question why. Their families and friends aren’t allowed to question why either. No information is given as to where the arrested person is, or whether they are even alive.

When I said ( some ) that people here in Britain are bitterly complaining about ‘ infringements to their liberties ‘ during the current pandemic, he couldn’t stop laughing.
Although he has very little, he is evidently VERY pleased that he’s here, and not in the country of his birth.

The amazing thing is though, is that his home country is a place that most Brits wouldn’t think twice about going to on holiday, and you have probably been there. Tourists get a very different experience, and their money is very welcome, but for the populace, who aren’t allowed to talk to foreign press, things are dire.