Chapter 11: Love of the Motherland

Ahmed Ali, originally from Somaliland, who arrived, aged eleven, via Djibouti in 2004; Said who arrived, aged sixteen, from Somalia in 2012. 

Ahmed was taken into care after the death of his mother soon after their arrival in the UK in 2004. Said, who arrived in 2012, left many of his family in war-torn Mogadishu as the Home Office would only allow his father, based in London, to bring over three of his six children and not his wife.  At the time of the initial interview both Ahmed and Said expressed a wish to return to the country of their birth, although this ambition has changed over time.