This week, Mr Shoniregun left the hostel and has been sleeping rough. He told The Telegraph that the system for returning failed asylum seekers appeared to have broken down.
He said: “I don’t really want to go back, but I’m put in a position where I don’t have another choice. So I have to go through the voluntary return pathway, but it seems the process isn’t working.”
Mr Shoniregun admitted that, until recently, he had received £400 a month in benefits for accommodation and subsistence.
He said: “I’ve been given funds from the Islington council and from the boss at Saint Stephen’s, Canonbury. Around £400.19 a month to help me with my living expenses. I’ve also used that money to pay for the service on my cellular device.”
Mr Shoniregun said he chose to apply for refugee status in Britain because he was born at the Whittington Hospital, in the borough of Islington. He said he should therefore have the right to remain in Britain, despite not being a UK citizen.
He said: “I chose the United Kingdom specifically because I was born in the United Kingdom. I came from the borough of Islington, I was born in the Whittington Hospital. I thought I would come to the United Kingdom because I was born here and I could start life, get some housing, get a job that pays me cash.
“When I decided to claim asylum, I had a feeling that I would just get through the airport border very easily because I had my United Kingdom birth certificate. I didn’t really think that I would claim asylum [but] I thought I just have to tell them I’m coming back here seeking protection.”
Mr Shoniregun added: “I’ve also applied for my British passport and His Majesty’s Passport Office has not given me a proper answer.”
The asylum seeker has a Grenadian mother and a Nigerian father. Immigration rules state that people born in Britain after 1983 are only automatically citizens if at least one parent was also a British citizen or had settled status. Mr Shoniregun’s UK birth does not feature in his asylum claim or the rejection letter.
