Ani's story

Ani lives in constant uncertainty about his future. He believes only God can sustain him. 

Ani (32) embodies agitation. He shakes constantly as he talks, tapping his feet and his hands. It’s not surprising. The day before we meet he was due to be deported from the UK. 

‘It’s just a miracle that I’m still here,’ he says, wanly.  Ani’s story started like so many others, full of hope. He came to the UK in 2013 with a place to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Swansea.

‘Things got messy,’ he says, without expanding on what that means. But whatever it involved, that messiness meant that Ani had to re-sit a year. That pushed him over his three-year visa and he was brought to Heathrow’s Immigration Removal Centre last year. 

‘I hope that I will be sent back to Swansea to finish my studies,’ he says. But given his brush with deportation, that seems unlikely. 

You don’t know what’s going to happen the next minute, or hour, let alone tomorrow

Ani comes from a Christian background and received a Bible from one of the chaplains at the Immigration Removal Centre. Has anything particularly spoken to you? I ask. He reels off a string of verses from Romans, Isaiah, and the Psalms.

‘I feel closer to God than I did before,’ says Ani, ‘because, you know, when you are “out” [the detainees’ word for living outside the detention centre in society] you are working, there’s always something going on. But here, there’s the whole time, so I can just read and make friends with this guy,’ he says, pointing to his Bible.

‘This place is enough to drive you crazy,’ he says. ‘You are scared. You don’t know what’s going to happen the next minute, or hour, let alone tomorrow. You are living in uncertainty. I just believe that it’s only God who can sustain me and get me out of this.’

Ani received a Bible thanks to our supporters. Find out more about our work in Heathrow’s Immigration Removal Centre.