Former refugee who escaped fatal fire fears crucial visa paperwork is lost

Wednesday, 17 May 2023

Umer Dalu has spent almost six years in Aotearoa, but adding up everything he’s been able to do in that time, it only feels like one.

As a former resident of Loafers Lodge, which went up in flames early on Tuesday morning, killing six and now being treated as a homicide investigation, he fears he’s lost everything he owns – including documents for his wife’s visa he invested time and money on to be able to join him from Ethiopia.

Trying to build his life up in Wellington, ever since he moved from Ethiopia in 2016, was a struggle.

And now, he is left with further questions about the days and weeks ahead of him; where he will he live, what support he will receive, and what, if any, of his belongings he can salvage.

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**

Dalu, of the Oromo community from Ethiopia, came to Wellington to join his ex-wife at the end of 2016 on a visitor’s visa.

Falling outside the category of quota refugees, he received little help to integrate into the community. Everywhere he turned, doors were closed on him.

“Without language, everything is very hard,” Dalu said. He felt frustrated, isolated and depressed in the two years he was unable to take English classes until he became a resident. “I wasted two years of my life.”

Paying for private accommodation became unsustainable in the only low-paid work he could get and Dalu went on the Wellington City Council’s social housing list. A year later, he was finally offered a place, but it coincided with his trip back home to Ethiopia to get married.

Upon his return, homeless, he was put up at Loafers Lodge by Work and Income.

“It’s a cubicle,” he said of the $300-a-week room with shared facilities. He was one of about 94 people – mostly men from what he saw – in the four-storey building on Adelaide Rd.

He was unable to use the kitchen because he only ate halal meat so he relied on takeaways and friends.

“I come in to sleep and then I leave – that’s what I used the space for.”

But it was also where all his belongings were – his clothes, shoes, passport, sentimental items like his wedding photo and DVD, as well as documents he had collected from Ethiopia to apply for his wife’s visa.

The Lodge was a noisy environment and he had a violent neighbour who constantly confronted him aggressively whenever they crossed paths.

“It was quite a hostile environment for him,” Umer’s social worker, Demeysa Ahmed from Changemakers Resettlement Forum said.

The hope he would have his own place enabled him to cope with the challenges, Ahmed said.

“Otherwise it was a demoralising place to be in.”

Despite it being “temporary”, Dalu had spent almost six months at the Lodge.

Dalu said he did not hear any alarms on Tuesday morning but heard people shouting “fire” outside his room when the fire broke out.

The alarms went off most days and had gone off earlier on Monday evening. There was never any urgency, he said.

Through smell of smoke, not knowing how big the fire would spread, he took just his phone, keys, put his slippers on and went outside. He was “shocked” when he found out people had died.

“If you saw the people living there, it’s sad, some people have disabilities, mobility issues – it’s quite cruel.”

Dalu was put up in a hotel on Wakefield St and a council staff member told him he would be able to view a studio apartment in Miramar on Friday.

Ahmed hoped it would be the right fit for him.

“There are a lot of people wanting to start their lives, to integrate.”

But accommodation like Loafers Lodge was a “band-aid approach”.

“If you want people to have positive contributions to society, give them the tools to thrive,” he said.