Seeking asylum 2: Bamidele

Photo Credit: Sasquatch ILicense

The Forum  is an organisation for the integration of migrants and refugees. Close to central London, the community help the individual with his/her different needs once arrived in UK.

The people here comes from every part in the world, and with different stories. Some of the members of this community have received their refugee status, are now fully integrated, and available to help who is now passing through difficulties in the new country.


Listen to the person first

Bamidele, 47, lives in the United Kingdom since 2007. It took between 4 and 5 years before his refugee status was granted.

Photo Credit: Global Panorama. License
Bamidele lives in Britain since he had to flee Nigeria in 2007.

“I will be happy if I can still find myself in a political setup,” he says when I asks him about the future. The ambition to become a political leader, to guide his people, is still with him. “I wish I could provide support, especially the vulnerable people.”
Bamidele does not want to see the others suffering or going through all the hardships his country has to face.
A brighter future, this is the hope.

Political problems are some of the reasons why so many flee from Nigeria. The war is more frequently the cause to leave the country. People are in fear of their lives.

Bamidele does not believe they are all economic migrants as many European leaders claim. “Out of 10 people who make the decision to reach Europe, there may be 3 or 4 economic migrants, that can be true. But we should not generalise.”

Screening, monitoring, and interviews, are necessary in order to detect genuine asylum seekers. “Those who are found economic migrants should be turned back,” he agrees, “but not those who are genuinely fleeing because in fear of their lives.”

Talking about the increasing number of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa, Bamidele cannot understand their reasons. “They are perishing in the water, they are committing suicide.”
People who get on boats, in his opinion, act due to ignorance, lack of education. “I think it is because they do not know what migrants are facing in Europe’s countries. We have only one life to live, and you cannot improve your situation anymore, earn more money or get better conditions, once your life is truncated. They are perishing in the water.”

He suggest refugees camps in North Africa should work better in order to avoid these people commit such an extreme act. Asylum requests should be made from the countries of origin.

Was then right the British government when proposing to rescue these people – because human beings – but afterward they need to be returned to Africa?





> Read another testimony. Seeking asylum 1: Thiru


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