“I’m in a bad dream,” says former mental health worker, Clarice Mhonderwa from Zimbabwe, who has just had her application for asylum in Ireland turned down. Ater three years waiting in the Direct Provision system, unable to work and on a basic allowance of €21.60 a week, Clarice now faces the possibility of returning to a country where LGBT+ people are characterised as “worse than dogs”.

Interview by Aoife Moriarty.

35 year-old asylum-seeker Clarice Mhonderwa is originally from Zimbabwe. When you meet her for the first time, her positive attitude, gentle spirit and calm nature all make an impression. But when speak to her on the phone a few months after our original interview in Dublin, she sounds different.

Photograph by Hazel Coonagh.

“I feel crushed, to be honest,” she admits. The reason is that her application for refugee status has been rejected after a three-year wait. She has appealed the decision, but isn’t sure how long the next stage will take, or whether her appeal will be successful.