Dramatic portrayals of a refugee

Teisendorf – As a deserter from Eritrea, through war zones such as Sudan and the Mediterranean: A refugee describes his long journey to freedom after Teisendorf.

Eritrea – a country in which a person is considered to be a will-less piece of meat. From this country they want to get away and take inhuman exertions, the arbitrariness of the dictator Isaias Afewerki, who tolerates no opposition – he is since May 24, 1993 President and head of the transitional government – to escape. Samson Barnebas, 28 years old, is one of the young men of this country, who had to experience an escape, as they flicker across the television screens every day, on his own body.

Escape from inhumane conditions

Escape from the home that you love and you have to leave but will not be at the mercy of an inhuman dictatorship. Not hunger, war and destruction are driving, but the inhuman system. To the five percent of the population and unsecured indications for follow are probably even more now out of the country. The country cuts herself off from the outside. What little we know comes from refugees. Belonging to the ”wrong” religion and ”wrong” political view ends in jail and then usually with death.

After his school education – Samson Barnebas attended high school and speaks good English – he had to go to the military. This common practice in Eritrea is in absolute arbitrariness and the young men leaving while in military service, as the manager wants it. This may years, even decades to be. Eritrea is located in a perpetual border war with Ethiopia and needs these men. The military service of Samson had been going on from 2003 to 2011, when he decided to flee. The with him now in Teisendorf arrived young men independently have a similar history behind it.

Eritrea – the ”North Korea of Africa”

To get an idea of the conditions in this country: Eritrea is often referred to as the ”North Korea” Africa, where the political conditions make life almost unbearable. In May 2013 asked the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations – Sheila Keetharuth – in its report serious and persistent human rights violations, including arbitrary killings and arrests, forced disappearances, torture, and lack of expression, religion and assembly firmly. In the press freedom organization ”Reporters without Borders” established ranking the country is in 2013 the 179th and thus repeats the last place one.

To be taken up as a deserter means certain death in Eritrea. So it was for the men to come as quickly as possible out of the country. After a 16-hour march Samson Barnebas reached the border with Sudan. In Sudan, he spent a year hiding near the border with Libya. To be discovered in the Sudan, usually means a kidnapping to torture, to publish data from relatives in Eritrea and then to extort these relatives to raise money for the release.

In Libya, soldiers detained him for over a year. With $ 1,200 he purchased the freedom and reached for the price of another $ 3,300 on a not ”seaworthy” boat leaving the harbor but why could not leave. The money was lost. Again and again helped his father, who lives in Norway family financially. With another boat that he had to pay again, it went over the Mediterranean and the Italian Navy attacked him and another 310 refugees on her 15 hour long voyage across the Mediterranean on. Meanwhile, the flight devoured already $ 7,300.

Finally arrived in Teisendorf

The money always needed came with the help of so-called money dealers from Norway to Libya, a not exactly confidence-inspiring handling. Banking transactions, such as transfers to European standards, are not possible. After ten day stay in Italy we took the train to Munich and there were the young men and a Nigerian family with three small children, the allocation in the house on the Loose Road in Teisendorf.

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