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Two and a half years ago Warzer Mirza a Kurd in his thirties from northern Iraq arrived in Britain. He's been employed by Raymond as a tailor for the last year, but his application for refugee status has recently been refused.
Warzer and Raymond |
Warzer Mirza was and still is an asylum seeker who had made a dangerous journey to this country. He's a tailor by trade, although he was conscripted into the army during the 1991 Gulf War.
A year ago he walked into an old-fashioned bespoke tailoring shop in Bradford run by 64 year old Raymond Lister who also employs another tailor, Sophie. Raymond gave him a job and now Warzer has a flat of his own.
But he's also a sculptor having been to the Institute of Fine Art in his home town and it was this interest in the arts, rather than any direct persecution by the Saddam Hussein regime, that led to his having to flee Iraq.
Yet his application for refugee status has been refused by the Home Office, and he's been told he will eventually have to leave. His MP has taken up the case, and Raymond is running a petition on his behalf which they hope will help with his appeal.
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