Jahna Sebastian Discusses her Hardships as a Refugee and how she Obtained her British Citizenship

International Pop Star Jahna Sebastian Discusses Racism in Russia, her Hardships as a Refugee and how she Obtained her British Citizenship after 10 years with BEN TV
By: KLPR Group, LLC
 
 
Jahna Sebastian and Nicole
Jahna Sebastian and Nicole
NEW YORK - July 11, 2016 - PRLog -- International Pop Star Jahna Sebastian recently sat down with Tunde Alabi from BEN TV channel 182 to discuss the adversity and challenges she faced when seeking asylum in the UK and to shine the light on what many refugees have to go through. She spoke about her experience at Yarl's Wood detention centre while she was pregnant with her daughter Nicole. Her story is both heartbreaking and inspirational.

Ms. Sebastian fled Russia because she faced oppression and discrimination from Neo Nazis as well as racism from police and the general public on a daily basis. She was subjected to random police checks and racial profiling ever since she became a teenager.  She came to the UK with one suitcase, alone without any family, starting her life from scratch as a young woman who just turned 20. She found a job at music technology shop which was male dominated and she was the only female sales expert, working the tough job, studying music production at college in the evenings. She built her studio herself in 2007 and bought a property in London. All that time she did not have a man helping her and she established herself in UK, made new friends, worked super hard all alone without any family or boyfriends.

One day she was detained for two months at Yarl's Wood detention centre because of a major mistake of the Home Office. Ms. Sebastian stated, "Yarl's Wood is a shameful place that doesn't treat asylum seekers well. It operates as a prison with all the same rules in place. It is not a camp, it's a prison." (While at Yarl's Wood she was corresponding with current leader of Labour Party in UK, Jeremy Corbyn in regard to her case when she was in there. Labour Party is the Opposition Party to the current ruling party, which is the Conservative Party, Tories.) She was forced to stay there from November 2007-January 2008 while she was three to five months pregnant with her daughter, fighting for her case alone, her case was reconsidered at the order of the Hight Court, then after battles in court while being a single mother she won her case and was granted political asylum and refugee status in UK. During all that time for more than 1.5 years she had no documents, no right to travel outside of the UK and no right to work, and she has never took to public funds, no matter how hard it was. This was  very limiting to her career because she had no right to officially work, perform, release music for money or get signed.

When applying for the various stages of her immigration status Ms. Sebastian had to apply for her daughter as well to ensure she had the right to live in the UK.  As it is a separated procedure for a child and if the child is born in the UK to non British citizens at the time of birth, they don't have the right to live or become British, unless the parent sorts it out as a separate case as the child being their dependent. So she had to put in money, hard work to fight for the both of them.

In 2014 she and her daughter have been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain after many months of waiting since she applied for it and not being able to travel at that time.

Then in 2015 they were finally eligible to apply for British citizenship and she applied for both of them. It took many months to consider and in April 2016 Ms. Sebastian and  her daughter finally received the British passports. They had the private British Citizenship Ceremony at Croydon Register Office. Contrary to popular belief a parent cannot obtain UK citizenship through the birth of their child in the UK, it's the other way around, a child can be granted citizenship if the parent applies for them and only when both of them are eligible.

So after almost ten years of struggle and fighting literally with blood, sweat and tears for her and her daughter's case they have become British citizens. She did it all on her own, without the help of any man. Ms. Sebastian stated, " I turned down marriage proposals even and as I did not want to give away my freedom and I wanted to achieve this independently. Most women coming to UK come here through marriage or family. My story is different, I fought like a man and I qualified like a man. My Love Is Not for Sale that's what I told those men."

Many journalists have covered Ms. Sebastian's case such as Paolo Zeriali, Treviso 24 TV as well as Ben McPartland who wrote a few articles on developments of her asylum case, Yarl's Wood and writing to Queen Elizabeth II in 2008 for Ham & High newspaper.  She has been interviewed by television personality Tunde Alabi many times for Ben TV.

Ms. Sebastian is currently working on a documentary on her experiences as a refugee and her fight to obtain British citizenship as well as releasing new music. Look out her "Love Over Hate" remix.

Interview with BEN TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPneyTHU2KY



About BEN TV
http://bentelevision.com/about-us/

Interview with journalist Paolo Zeriali exposing Yarl's Wood and discussing the Refugee Crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pysS96vctM

To keep up with Jahna Sebastian check out her social networks below:
Twitter: @JahnaSebastian
Instagram: @JahnaSebastian

For interviews and press inquiries please contact Kathy Liautaud at kathy@klprgroup.com

Media Contact
Kathy Liautaud/KLPR Group LLC
kathy@klprgroup.com
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Source:KLPR Group, LLC
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Tags:Jahna Sebastian, Ben Tv, Refugee
Industry:Television
Location:New York City - New York - United States
Subject:Features
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