WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:09.150 --> 00:00:13.620 So, at the moment, as far as we're aware, we are the only organisation in the UK 00:00:13.620 --> 00:00:19.340 which is supporting asylum claims from non-religious claimants in the UK. 00:00:19.340 --> 00:00:25.880 So, these are people who are apostates, people who've generally left very conservative 00:00:25.880 --> 00:00:30.720 or coercive religious groups in their home countries. They have come to the UK 00:00:30.720 --> 00:00:35.489 now claiming asylum, because if returned to their home countries they would either 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:39.400 face the risk of violence or state-sponsored persecution. 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:41.160 My name is Hamza bin Walayat. 00:00:41.160 --> 00:00:44.640 And I am a proud humanist. 00:00:44.660 --> 00:00:50.520 And I came from Pakistan. I've claimed asylum here. 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:57.460 Hamza is a Pakistani national who came to this country wishing to be able to 00:00:57.460 --> 00:01:02.580 live a life he could be openly non-religious. And applied to remain in 00:01:02.580 --> 00:01:08.940 the country on the basis that he would've face persecution back in Pakistan where 00:01:08.940 --> 00:01:12.700 conversion from Islam, apostasy, is a capital offense. 00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:27.500 I was not very happy, the way I was treated back in Pakistan because of the pressurising or the 00:01:27.510 --> 00:01:34.980 issues I was having with my family, my friends and people of the society. I mean, 00:01:34.980 --> 00:01:40.950 I had to live under a burden; I had to hide my personality. I mean I did not 00:01:40.950 --> 00:01:44.790 have any childhood. I used, you know, I spent my childhood getting punished, 00:01:44.790 --> 00:01:51.780 getting beaten up by my parents, by teachers and I didn't have any friends. They used 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:58.380 to, like, laugh at me. And, I was, I didn't did not have any friend whom I can express 00:01:58.380 --> 00:02:05.090 my views to, I can open up to like kids do normally. So that's why I could 00:02:05.090 --> 00:02:08.450 not be myself and it was very horrible. I could not live like that. 00:02:08.450 --> 00:02:18.220 My life was in danger and still is in danger. And because obviously people who 00:02:18.220 --> 00:02:24.380 renounce their religion - there's two terms for them like blasphemy and 00:02:24.380 --> 00:02:29.599 apostasy, but in Pakistan they treat both as a single term. And that is just - 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:35.680 they are bound to be killed. That's the concise answer they give 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:40.790 anyone who renounces their religion or anyone who insults their religions, so 00:02:40.790 --> 00:02:43.320 that person is bound to be killed. 00:02:43.700 --> 00:02:47.780 He applied for asylum in this country and as 00:02:47.780 --> 00:02:52.120 part of the process with the Home Office, was asked, quite frankly 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:56.420 bizarre and inappropriate questions to try and demonstrate that he was a humanist, 00:02:56.420 --> 00:03:03.110 which included whether he knew about the theories of Plato and 00:03:03.110 --> 00:03:11.510 Aristotle as humanists. Firstly, you know, you probably as a person in the UK, if 00:03:11.510 --> 00:03:14.090 you grew up here and went through our education system, you would not encounter 00:03:14.090 --> 00:03:20.900 Plato and Aristotle unless you did A Level or first year degree Philosophy at 00:03:20.900 --> 00:03:26.600 university. And if you did that, you may be aware that both Plato and Aristotle 00:03:26.600 --> 00:03:30.530 were religious people; they were not anything to do with the founding of 00:03:30.530 --> 00:03:34.010 humanism. These people are not humanists. It wasn't a fair question. I think if you are 00:03:34.010 --> 00:03:38.630 asked 9 out of 10 people who call themselves humanists, what they knew 00:03:38.630 --> 00:03:44.810 about Plato or Aristotle, you would get a very limited response. So it seemed that 00:03:44.810 --> 00:03:48.760 Home Office hadn't really done any proper research into humanism or other 00:03:48.760 --> 00:03:53.460 non-religious beliefs. And this had led them to an incorrect decision. 00:03:53.460 --> 00:04:02.140 I've been accused as a liar, and that I'm not a humanist. And, whereas, I don't know. 00:04:02.140 --> 00:04:07.880 And they wanted me to prove that I am a humanist and what humanism is. 00:04:07.880 --> 00:04:11.140 Whereas they don't even know what humanism is themselves. 00:04:11.140 --> 00:04:14.500 So we decided that we would campaign on this to try 00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:20.840 and change the Home Office's decision, so to appeal the refusal of Hamza. 00:04:20.840 --> 00:04:25.100 And secondly, to make sure that things like this didn't happen again, that 00:04:25.100 --> 00:04:32.800 non-religious claimants should be able to have a reasonable shot at gaining asylum in a fair system. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:36.020 Humanists UK prepared a petition that was signed by 00:04:36.020 --> 00:04:40.180 over 12,500 people and that was submitted to the Prime Minister's house. 00:04:40.180 --> 00:04:47.280 We started lobbying with other religion and belief groups at the Home Office for better guidance 00:04:47.280 --> 00:04:52.640 for the training of their decision-makers. And we have been successful in this. There is 00:04:52.640 --> 00:04:58.160 going to be a new Home Office training programme. At the moment, we are submitting 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:03.770 a fresh asylum claim on the basis of the new evidence and hopefully with the 00:05:03.770 --> 00:05:07.500 better training that's now going to be going through the whole of the Home Office 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:10.840 the same mistakes shouldn't be occurring in the first instance.