The flow of immigration to Europe is not about to dry up, nor is the need for warm clothing. These forced travelers are not numbers, but people with hopes, fears, suffering and in winter, the cold that awaits them.
They have made long journeys from Africa, the Middle East and deserve our help, our solidarity and warm clothes to help improve their daily lives and protect them. Here, the question is no longer political, it is whether we let other human beings suffer and die.
The come from different places and for different reasons. Here is thee stereotype of people coming.
Of course it’s not exhaustive and we could write thousands of stories like that.
1 – I’m Wael I’m now 30 years old and I have left Syria in 27 because the war between Islamic terrorists and Syria’s state destroyed 99% of my student city. Then I was at age to serve in the National Army and I couldn’t fight against my brothers in a civil war. So I decided to leave my country by crossing Turkish mountains, taking a small boat with too many people, be rescued and manage to arrive in Greece. There I was lucky to be choice to join France, where the government gave me a place to stay. Now I work hard to pay the rent and try to start a new life.
2 – I’m sory, I come from a small village in the middle of Guinea. Since my father’s death, I have been under the responsibility of my uncle. When I was 13 he order me to start working in the gold mine and stop the school I was going sometimes. I refused to die under the ground and he hit me for that. So without saying anything to my mother, I left. After two years living outside or at peoples’ houses and doing small jobs to pay food in Cote D’Ivoire and Mali, I follow some kids as me who were heading up to Algeria then Marocco.
During our trip we were in jail, we met the terrible faces of the terrorist group of Boko Haram and cross a desert with almost no food and water. I was not thinking of France or even Europe, I was only following people and try to daily survive. In Marocco, I followed a group to the coast and as I had no money to pay it, I jumped into the water, reaching the boat without to know how to swim. In the boat, we were all scared. We were rescued, in camp, in Spain for a while. As I’m a french speaking I decided to take a train to France and I arrived in Annecy. They didn’t accept me as an under. I have lived for one year and a half with two others migrants at a person’s place without paper. Luckily, people help me and I could start school. Now I’m 18, I’m still studying woodwork and I await an answer to my visa request.
3 – I’m Omar, I’m from Afghanistan. I have left my country because the Taliban killed my father and wanted me to join them as they do for all men. As I might guess, it’s impossible to say no. So I left my family behind me. My mother, my sister… After such a hard trip through middle east full of dangers and hope, I manage to join France. Here the government helps me by giving me accommodation. In an association I started to learn a new language even I already speak six ones. Day after day, but efforts I made my life better. Now I have a job in a restaurant where I go by bike with the helmet. I try to do my best in France, in a safe place.
All statistics about immigration in France on : https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/3633212
