After a harrowing experience in detention, Haven Coffee’s Usman Khalid wants to help other refugees find their feet

By Victoria Munro

A Walthamstow cafe-owner who spent 50 days in an immigration detention centre is now helping other refugees find their feet.

Usman Khalid, owner of Haven Coffee in St Mary’s Road, offers free barista training to refugees and asylum seekers, teaching them how to make the perfect cup of coffee in six weeks.

Usman was raised Muslim in Pakistan and travelled to the UK after he began to question the faith, which he said was “not possible” there, and has lived in Walthamstow since 2012.

He did not seek asylum after his visa ran out because he feared being deported but was caught during a raid of his Walthamstow home in 2015.

Remembering the years before he was seized, Usman told the Echo: “I didn’t apply for asylum straight away because I was not sure what the next step I should take was and, by the time I realised there was a process, it was too late for me.

“Life is very tough if you don’t have a proper status, really there is no life. For a long time, I had just one meal a day – one piece of chicken and chips with a can of coke – because I didn’t have money.

“I was always living under fear, even if I heard an ambulance siren, I was scared to hear any kind of siren. It was very tough and upsetting.”

Usman was seized, alongside “one or two” of his housemates, during a raid of his home and says he has no idea how the Home Office discovered them.

Previously, a spokesperson from Waltham Forest Anti Raids Network told the Echo there is a “culture of collaboration” between the Home Office and employers, landlords and other organisations, who are given financial incentives to report people.

Usman was taken to Harmondsworth Detention Centre in Hillingdon, where last November around 100 detainees protested during a power cut at the conditions inside, as reported by The Guardian.

Describing the centre, Usman said: “If you look at it from the front, it looks like some kind of nice office building but, from the back, there is barbed wire on the walls and security cameras.

“Inside, there are a million doors between you and the outside world, you can’t see the outside world at all.”

Despite keeping to himself as much as possible, Usman said he faced “hostility” and “dehumanising behaviour” from staff.

Usman recalled one incident in which he was standing next to a staff member and coughed. The staff member allegedly asked if he had tuberculosis and told him: “Do not die on this floor and make it dirty, you can die in your room so I won’t have to clean the mess.”

Reflecting on his experience eight years ago, he said: “Power without any check or balance makes you corrupt and you can’t take cameras into the detention centres. The little information coming out now is because of the efforts of charities.

“Just like they say ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’, what happens in detention, stays in detention. When you go inside, you don’t feel like you are inside a civilised country or society.

“I’m the kind of person who avoids confrontation as much as possible but even then a couple of things happened to me.

“The staff do not show any empathy in a place where there should be more empathy shown to the people, because they are vulnerable.”

Usman’s case was heard and decided, granting him refugee status, in just 50 days, which he said was “very unique” judging by those he met inside the centre.

He said: “The UK is the only country with indefinite detention. I have seen people inside detention centres for a year and a half or two years.

“The people inside are not [serious] criminals. I don’t think coming to this country and seeking asylum or overstaying your visa is a kind of law-breaking where you can see them as any other criminal.

“When I was out I was of course very happy but, in the back of my mind, I also thought ‘why am I outside and other people still inside, I am no better than them’.”

Usman’s experiences made him determined to help other refugees and asylum seekers into employment and, so far, he has trained 11 people in barista skills.

This includes one woman he hoped to hire to work with him at Haven Coffee but sadly she was relocated to near Gatwick by the Home Office before she could start work.

Usman is continuously fundraising to help him take on more trainees, as the courses take time away from his growing business.

He added that, while living in Pakistan, he had no interest in coffee but “developed a love for it” in London, alongside “Chelsea FC, fish and chips and pub culture”.

Usman said: “I also love that this city has a mix of old and new and so much multiculturalism. It makes me sad that now some politicians are trying to destroy that.”

When contacted for comment, a Home Office spokesperson said: “We are committed to a fair and humane immigration policy which welcomes those who use legal routes, but tackles abuse of the immigration system and makes our streets safer.

“We have not been provided with the evidence required to look into these allegations from 2015.”

Find out more about Haven Coffee, including how to donate to his fundraiser, here: https://linktr.ee/havencoffee

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