Lucee* was 21 when she left her family and studies in Sierra Leone to come to England, last year.
\nShe felt she had no other options after learning that her father was planning on forcing her to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), and then become the second wife to an older man she\u2019d never met.
\n\u201cFGM is pure wickedness. A friend from my school died three days after she had it. I knew I didn\u2019t want these things my father wanted for me. I don\u2019t ever want to be a second wife, and if I want to marry it would have to be my own choice \u2013 not someone else\u2019s,” she told me.
\n\u201cBut the more I tried to tell him I wasn\u2019t doing it because it\u2019s my life, the angrier he got.
\n“My mum tried to persuade my father as well, but he was aggressive. He told us we couldn\u2019t disobey his order.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucee, who was studying accountancy at university, confided in her aunt who lives in Birmingham. She suggested her niece visit her for a few weeks to escape the situation and let her father calm down. Lucee, now 22, agreed and came to England on a three-month visiting visa.<\/p>\n
But a few weeks into her trip, she realised that her father wouldn\u2019t change his mind.\u201cI wanted to give a strong message to my father that I didn\u2019t want to do what he wanted and I hoped he would understand. But when he found out I\u2019d left, he became very aggressive towards my mum and younger sister.\u201cHe was more determined that if I came back, I would have FGM and the arranged marriage. He now suspects my mother of helping me [she speaks to Lucee regularly] and says he\u2019ll return her to her [birth] family if he finds out it\u2019s true.\u201cI know if I went back my father would find me and force me to have this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucee\u2019s aunt decided that the her niece should stay in the UK for a longer time period, so she called the Home Office, telling them she wanted to seek asylum.<\/p>\n
They set an appointment for 11pm in a centre in Croydon back on September 1 last year, where Lucee would be interviewed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy auntie asked them if she could come with me. But they told me to go alone, so my uncle drove me there and waited outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never came back out.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n