19.12.06
Humbling
This is something that occasionally happens in my work particularly at Prince Philip House in the centre of Leicester where all the “sponging” asylum seekers live.
A man came to see me today. He’s from Eritrea. If you didn’t know this is the neighbour to Ethiopia; you know, that poor country that has no money to feed its population but plenty to fight a border war against Eritrea.
He’s a young man (early 30′s) and had been in the army as all able bodied men in Eritrea have to be (as in many countries) for a year or two. He’d left this service and returned to his family where he was the main earner since his dad died.
The border war kicked off so he got drafted. Got shot in the stomach and invalided out of the army. Recuperated then got re-drafted to do supplies work rather than fight.
He was “caught” reading a pentecostal bible rather than the official religious book (I don’t know what the official book is). Apparently he read this bible because it was in his language rather than some official lingo.
So he’s been beaten. Shot in the buttock, knee and foot. Put in hospital again with his leg in a cast. This cast was on for months. When it was taken off he was unable to move his leg much at all (as expected with this sort of treatment). One of the army doctors then proceeded to forcibly bend his knee – quite possibly one of the most painful things you could do to someone in that state. He was thrown back into prison and his leg beaten regularly until it broke again. So back to hospital and he escaped to Sudan with a friend who was a hospital worker. And he ends up here where he might actually get some sympathetic treatment.
Sometimes I really like this country. Shame about the idiots who think all “these people” are thieving scumbags.
Have more fun than him.