In their own words (part 3)

The third, and final (for now) installment of my students' stories.

I hope others find them as inspiring as I do. I hope they stand as a testament that "deterrent" is not the answer to the ever-increasing flow of asylum seekers arriving on Europe's shores. There are already plenty of things which in normal circumstances would act as a fairly convincing deterrent. If separation from family which may well be permanent, a very real fear of dying en route and the arrival in a confusing, alien environment are no deterrent; it is because in the midst of everything there is a hope of life they just can't find back home.

Most of my students love and mourn for their home countries. They speak of corruption, opporession, poverty and war; but also of hidden riches of beauty, culture and community. They only leave because they feel they have no choice. Surely we too have no choice but to make them welcome.

I come from Sudan. I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers. I lived in Darfur. My family are farmers. After my village was destroyed by my government they live in camps. I have been in the UK about six months. I live now in Birmingham.

My country is Sudan. It has got independence in 1956. The leader now is Omar al-Bashir and the capital city is Khartoum. The population is about 31 million. Almost all the people are farmers and they grow different crops. They have more than 560 languages and cultures but the basic language is Arabic. The people are making between Arab people and African people. And the basic religion in Sudan is Islam and the others are little. The people are so lovely in my country but unfortunately now there is war in there and my government killing the people in Darfur, and the Nuba mountains and the East of Sudan and it destroyed all the villages. I am very sorry and sad for that but I am very happy to talking about my country.

I am talking about my journey to UK. I started from Khartoum to Libya by desert and by car. I was travelling for 12 days on the way, sometimes with no food and no water. The weather is very, very, very hot. When we arrived in Libya we found the people is very bad people. They were kicking us. We stayed there about 15 days and we came Italy in the Mediterranean by boat. It was very frightening. I thank of God a lot because he saved us to reach Italy. Unfortunately when we arrived in Paris we stayed on road and slept under the bridge. At last we reached the UK and we found everything is good. There is freedom and the people is very lovely and everything is good and I thank all people in England.

I was born in Congo. Congo is the capital of DRC. My first journey was very difficult from my home town to England. I left Congo about one year ago. Now I live with my whole family and I love it very much. I have five siblings. I am the second of my family. I am not married yet. I live in Birmingham and I am so happy about this.

I come from Congo. At the moment the president of Congo is called Joseph Kabila. He is in power since 2001. The 30^th June we celebrate the entry of AFDN its called our national hymn. We’ve got two seasons. A rainy season and a hot season. Its a big country and most people are Christian. My country is great  but the government is not good and many people suffer. There is always a disorder during the elections. I love my country very much because we’ve many cultures and traditions. We also have many different food and different animals.

When I got to England I was confused because i saw many different things, like the buildings, different races, different food, etc. I was so sad because I didn’t speak any English because of this I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t know anything about England and the weather is very much colder in winter. I didn’t have any friends and the home office complicated my case. But now I am so happy because I speak a little English, I’ve some friends. I feel safe. I’m so proud of England because there is free college and school. People have freedom and have some support.