The man kept staring right through me until Ayamin’s lawyer began to speak. As the bulldog man’s eyes left us I heard Estelle let out a small sigh of relief.

Ayamin’s lawyer wasn’t nearly as scary. He was a lanky man wearing a lanky jacket, who spoke quickly and nodded to Ayamin every time he mentioned her name.

He wrapped up his remarks and called on Ayamin to speak.

The entire court leaned forwards as she stood up and walked to the stand. Somehow, she managed to look calm and composed. She even managed to smile at the judge as she gave her name.

‘I’m Ayamin Yacoub.’

Her lawyer was still on his feet, ‘Ayamin’s going to read a short summary of her journey to England.’

I watched her face as she read. I’d lived through a decent portion of her tale, but it was interesting to hear the things that were most important to her – Grandma Teete and the stars, the boat ride to Greece, our stay at the Macedonian border, she talked about Italy and France and how much England meant to her.

‘Why?’ Her lawyer asked, ‘Why does England mean so much?’

‘Because to me the United Kingdom means safety, it means I can stop being a refugee and start living like a normal person. I can get a job, go to school, sleep in a real bed.’

Her lawyer nodded, ‘If Ayamin is allowed to stay she wants to train as a nurse,’ he paused and glanced around the courtroom, ‘She wants to care for people.’

With a nod to Ayamin, he took a seat. In the bench opposite him, the bulldog lawyer got to his feet. He cleared his throat before he spoke to Ayamin.

‘There are many lawyers who’d doubt your story, who’d try to pick at the threads in hopes of unravelling it. But the way you speak makes it clear you’d been through a lot Ms Yacoub. I just want to talk about a few details.’

He tapped his pen on the yellow paper in front of him.

‘Firstly, when you boarded the smuggler’s truck did you know you’d be entering England illegally?’

‘Yes – but we were desperate.’

‘Desperate? Can you elaborate on that?’

Ayamin’s face went a little red, ‘We were living on the street under a leaking tent. We were so poor we went with smugglers that were known to be human traffickers and we still could not afford their full fee…’

The bulldog nodded, ‘And if you were so desperate why didn’t you consider claiming refugee status in France? Or Italy, Greece, Austria, maybe even Germany? Surely that would’ve been better than dealing with human traffickers?’

Ayamin opened her mouth but seemed to freeze halfway.

Next to me, Estelle shook her head, ‘That man never takes it easy.’

‘Is this going to hurt her case?’ I asked.

‘Depends on what she says – and remember – this guy is only getting warmed up.’

We stared at each other, I felt the ring on my finger and gave it a twist. Will we need it?

Ayamin began to speak again and we turned back to the screen.

‘I think I just knew more about England… The refugees that talked about it said it was safe – that there were lots of opportunities for the future.’

‘And I’m sure many of those other countries offered the same opportunities.’ the lawyer scratched his chin, ‘Are you aware that in England we have a refugee quota?’

‘It’s all they seemed to talk about when I saw myself on the news.’

There was a muffled laugh from the media section, even the bulldog seemed to smile,

‘Our country can only take so many refugees at once, otherwise, our hospitals, schools, and other services would be overburdened. Our quota for this year is full.

Why should we let you in when there are other refugees – just as needy who have gone through the proper legal processes? Why should they miss out?’

Ayamin’s lawyer shot to his feet, ‘That’s not a fai-‘

‘NO,’ Ayamin shouted over top of him.