Nobody Knows Me, by Anonymous

A true story of an unaccompanied asylum seeking child in Swansea. Home office has assessed his age as 4 years older than his actual date and given him a random date of birth. He was placed in a shared house with unknown adults.

Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) are children and young people who are seeking asylum in the UK but who have been separated from their parents or carers. While their claim is processed, they are cared for by a local authority. Home office often mis-judge the age of these young people therefore, UASCs face a lot of trouble or being abused during their stay.

Nobody Knows Me

Nobody knows me.
My mum was a virgin
When they said I was born,
And no, she wasn’t the Virgin Mary.

Nobody knows when I came into this world,
the day is no longer important.
I have a strange new date of birth:
four years before I was born.

They have dumped me in a strange house of grown-ups,
My mum warned me about strangers.
She said youngsters should be supervised
But nobody knows me so anyone could come.

People give me birthday wishes on a day that means nothing.
I am a stranger to myself.
I spend my birthdays alone among strangers,
Nobody cares because nobody knows me.

I cannot say this out loud, I cannot make things right.
There will be trouble if I go against them.
They will say I lie when I speak the truth,
they are strangers and nobody knows me.