Chapter 13: On Her Own

Mariam who arrived, aged sixteen, from Guinea in 2006.

Mariam left Guinea to escape her father’s insistence that she marry an older man with several wives and undergo female genital mutilation from which her sister had died. The Home Office in the UK disputed her identity and age leading to social services rendering her homeless. Rayah, who Mariam met by chance when she heard her speaking French, accompanied her to the Refugee Council, made sure she received education and got her a lawyer. Mariam now has a degree, British citizenship and is working as a theatre nurse in a hospital on the South Coast.