I have two brothers and we lived together with my mum. My younger brother still lives in Eritrea with my mum, but my older brother lives in Germany.In 2014 I fled to Etiopia. I was walking in the night, because it was too dangerous to walk in the day time. If people saw me, they would tell the soldiers. If they heard me or saw me then they would catch me and send me to prison. Therefore I was walking in the night.
I came to Etiopia together with my friends. The travel went well. When we arrived in Etiopia we were met by Etiopian Soldiers. We told them how we came here, and they took us to the police. In Eritrea many people work as soldiers, both men as well as boys and girls. Therefore it was difficult to convince the Etiopian police that I wasn’t a soldier, because many people lie to the police about that.

After one month in Etiopia I got an ID card and could then go to live in an asylum centre. There were many eritreans living in the asylum centre, and I lived there for 4 months. After that I travelled to Sudan. It took two weeks, but the journey was ok. Although I didn’t want to stay in Sudan. I wanted to go to Europe.
After one week in Sudan I travelled to Sahara. We were travelling 30 persons in a Toyota. We were sitting wery close. Arm against arm and leg against leg. We were sitting many persons on top of each other. It was hard. After three days there was some problems with the car. It broke down, and we had to stop and wait for two days. There are no trees in Sahara, only burning sun. Some people crawled under the car in order to stay in the shadow, while others spread out a linen that they held up against sky. The driver called after help, and after two days another car came to pick us up. It took 12 days before we arrived in Libya. It was a tough trip. We didn’t have any food or water in 5 days, and some of the people died.
After three weeks in Libya my aunt payed so that I could continue my travel to the capital of Libya, which is close to the ocean. I lived there for one week. Then my aunt payed for my travel with a boat to Italia. Many problems arised on the trip to Italy. We were 180 persons on the boat. It was difficult for the boat to sail, because there were too many people on it. At times we were sailing and at times the boat was lying completely still. After we had been sailing for 24 hours a big ship from Italy picked us up. It took three days to reach the shore, and I almost didn’t have any food on the trip.
I didn’t want to stay in Italy. I wanted to go to Denmark, and therefore I continued my travel again after two weeks stay in Italy. First I took a train to München and then a bus to Denmark, and on the third day I arrived.

I left Eritrea in July 2013. My father was taken away for political reasons. Life became very difficult for me and my family because my father worked for the family. I got big problems, had to leave school and got into prison.

At the moment I am attending the German course. Here in Germany I live alone. I would like to pass the German course and work as a goldsmith again.

Storyteller’s name: Anonymous
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke and Sarah Dudek
Country of origin: Eritrea
Sex: m
Age: 21

I arrived in Germany in 2017. The first six months I lived under great stress. We lived in a camp, it was hard. I couldn’t concentrate on learning the language, the stress was too high. Today it is better to attend a German course and wish to start an education afterwards.

Storyteller’s name: Anonymous
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Sudan/Eritrea
Sex: m
Age: 30