Destination
Every when you cross a border you are going to have to come face to face with immigration and maybe customs officers. I recall this guy who made several attempts to get into Europe. On the first occasion, he got to the immigration desk and claimed he was travelling with Mr. Y. The two knew each other actually. But at the immigration desk, Mr. Y claimed he did not know this guy from Adam. Now, this guy had not prepared for his journey and when he got to immigration, he panicked and tried to attach himself to someone else. This plan failed. He was deported there and then. The lesson here is that he had not planned his journey, and even when he panicked he did not have a plan B.
Note: there are claims that if you are seeking asylum you literally run out of where ever you are and cannot pick up anything. This means you will only have the clothes you are wearing. But, how would you then have made it out of the country say without tickets, money, passport etc? My caution here is prepare. (I always believe in thinking things through. No wonder many people find me a bit slow.) Get all your paper work. Every item that is important in making your case is important. To succeed you have to make it a one way journey. (Have passport, tooth-brush, can travel, can work.) You are seeking asylum. You intend to be granted asylum. You have time to prepare. Unless you are one of those with numerous alternatives – jump through a window and break some limbs (make sure you are on the ground floor, people have lost lives jumping out of the first floor), go on hunger strike, (make sure you have some secret food and water supply, some friends of mine nearly starved their kids to death until a secret food channel was established). There are many ideas and I will get to these later.
Immigration Desk
Back home we dread the police. And rightly so, because these chaps beat us up every so often for any reason. I recall one incident when I visited Africa, and I was walking with one of my friends when two police trucks stopped and loads of policemen jumped off and started beating people up. I ran forward to try and stop this senseless behaviour but my friend held me back. Here I was thinking the human rights we enjoy in Europe applied everywhere. I narrowly survived an uncalled for beating. And what was so disgusting was seeing them walk off smugly with weird wry smiles.
These guys harass people for anything. For giving them less bribes than they expected, for driving cars they cannot afford, you name it. The soldiers are worse. If they don’t rape you they will kill you. But here in Europe it is the Immigration Department, the Home Office. Mention these two departments in an immigration gathering and see what happens! People literally run across busy roads in spite of fast moving traffic. These two departments are your living nightmare until you get your leave to remain. Don’t joke about these two departments when you are with asylum seekers. They could lynch you themselves. Their nerves are on edge when you mention these departments. One guy recently, in hiding away from the law passed away while living in a cleaner’s cupboard. It could be he died of hypothermia, it was during winter. There is a guy I have seen sleep in the banks outer hall. It is a tough game. It calls for all your wits.
As you go through immigration in your chosen host country they will require you to have your paperwork in order; passport, vaccinations and a good amount of funds. If you luck any of these items you are destined for a return trip on the next outbound flight to your country. By the way after being a guest of her Majesty’s. If you don’t know what this term means ask and you will find out. Many asylum seekers have fallen into this situation and wasted hard earned money because they relied on just a ticket and their passport. Others have relied on only large amounts of cash. That is not good enough. With these SHENGEN laws in place in Europe, if one EU country turns you back you are done and I mean DONE. They share their data. You will have to change your fingerprints, your iris, your facial features and I do not know how you can achieve this. You could chop off your finger tips and still have a semblance of use with your hands, but the iris, hmm…. Unless you are willing to go blind but I do not think that is a price worth paying. Soon you may have to figure out how to change your DNA and at the moment this should be humanly impossible. These forensic scientists now dig DNA from Acid vats, ashes etc. destroying your DNA should = destroying yourself, and this is not worth anything.
Once you make it past immigration, you now have to work out how to hand yourself in as an asylum seeker.
When I sought asylum I opted to go to Finland. Every now and then I get someone asking me why I chose Finland. How the hell do I know, I just decided. If anything who cares…
Anyway, I got onto a plane from Africa and what a trip. By then Africa Airlines still flew to Europe. On my chosen day I ended up not flying out. Some minister commandeered the plane and instead of taking passengers to Germany, the flight was diverted to the UK, and some of us were not allowed to board. I went home furious and even more determined to get out. The next day there was an unscheduled flight to Germany and I managed to board that one and out we flew.
During the flight I had a lot of time to think about my mum and siblings I had left behind. I pondered over what the future held. On my agenda were; studies, professional work, a family of my own, and a pension to see me through my old age.
Every when you cross a border you are going to have to come face to face with immigration and maybe customs officers. I recall this guy who made several attempts to get into Europe. On the first occasion, he got to the immigration desk and claimed he was travelling with Mr. Y. The two knew each other actually. But at the immigration desk, Mr. Y claimed he did not know this guy from Adam. Now, this guy had not prepared for his journey and when he got to immigration, he panicked and tried to attach himself to someone else. This plan failed. He was deported there and then. The lesson here is that he had not planned his journey, and even when he panicked he did not have a plan B.
Note: there are claims that if you are seeking asylum you literally run out of where ever you are and cannot pick up anything. This means you will only have the clothes you are wearing. But, how would you then have made it out of the country say without tickets, money, passport etc? My caution here is prepare. (I always believe in thinking things through. No wonder many people find me a bit slow.) Get all your paper work. Every item that is important in making your case is important. To succeed you have to make it a one way journey. (Have passport, tooth-brush, can travel, can work.) You are seeking asylum. You intend to be granted asylum. You have time to prepare. Unless you are one of those with numerous alternatives – jump through a window and break some limbs (make sure you are on the ground floor, people have lost lives jumping out of the first floor), go on hunger strike, (make sure you have some secret food and water supply, some friends of mine nearly starved their kids to death until a secret food channel was established). There are many ideas and I will get to these later.
Immigration Desk
Back home we dread the police. And rightly so, because these chaps beat us up every so often for any reason. I recall one incident when I visited Africa, and I was walking with one of my friends when two police trucks stopped and loads of policemen jumped off and started beating people up. I ran forward to try and stop this senseless behaviour but my friend held me back. Here I was thinking the human rights we enjoy in Europe applied everywhere. I narrowly survived an uncalled for beating. And what was so disgusting was seeing them walk off smugly with weird wry smiles.
These guys harass people for anything. For giving them less bribes than they expected, for driving cars they cannot afford, you name it. The soldiers are worse. If they don’t rape you they will kill you. But here in Europe it is the Immigration Department, the Home Office. Mention these two departments in an immigration gathering and see what happens! People literally run across busy roads in spite of fast moving traffic. These two departments are your living nightmare until you get your leave to remain. Don’t joke about these two departments when you are with asylum seekers. They could lynch you themselves. Their nerves are on edge when you mention these departments. One guy recently, in hiding away from the law passed away while living in a cleaner’s cupboard. It could be he died of hypothermia, it was during winter. There is a guy I have seen sleep in the banks outer hall. It is a tough game. It calls for all your wits.
As you go through immigration in your chosen host country they will require you to have your paperwork in order; passport, vaccinations and a good amount of funds. If you luck any of these items you are destined for a return trip on the next outbound flight to your country. By the way after being a guest of her Majesty’s. If you don’t know what this term means ask and you will find out. Many asylum seekers have fallen into this situation and wasted hard earned money because they relied on just a ticket and their passport. Others have relied on only large amounts of cash. That is not good enough. With these SHENGEN laws in place in Europe, if one EU country turns you back you are done and I mean DONE. They share their data. You will have to change your fingerprints, your iris, your facial features and I do not know how you can achieve this. You could chop off your finger tips and still have a semblance of use with your hands, but the iris, hmm…. Unless you are willing to go blind but I do not think that is a price worth paying. Soon you may have to figure out how to change your DNA and at the moment this should be humanly impossible. These forensic scientists now dig DNA from Acid vats, ashes etc. destroying your DNA should = destroying yourself, and this is not worth anything.
Once you make it past immigration, you now have to work out how to hand yourself in as an asylum seeker.
When I sought asylum I opted to go to Finland. Every now and then I get someone asking me why I chose Finland. How the hell do I know, I just decided. If anything who cares…
Anyway, I got onto a plane from Africa and what a trip. By then Africa Airlines still flew to Europe. On my chosen day I ended up not flying out. Some minister commandeered the plane and instead of taking passengers to Germany, the flight was diverted to the UK, and some of us were not allowed to board. I went home furious and even more determined to get out. The next day there was an unscheduled flight to Germany and I managed to board that one and out we flew.
During the flight I had a lot of time to think about my mum and siblings I had left behind. I pondered over what the future held. On my agenda were; studies, professional work, a family of my own, and a pension to see me through my old age.
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