“My mission is to save lives that’s why I want to share my story, as a lesson. With everything that has happened to me, and what I have gone through, I do not have any plans of leaving Ethiopia. I will wait for either a legal pathway or the legal right to work.
In Egypt, together with 18 others, I was beaten and tortured daily for 3 months. We were sold to Bedouins who demanded 25 000 USD. When we refused, they tortured us by hanging us upside down and burning us with plastic. We were detained for 4 months. I lost a lot of weight from 80 Kg to 42 Kg.
I have now lived in Addis Ababa for 5 years as an urban refugee. I still have scars from the journey because I buried 42 people along the way, the oldest being only 32 years old.
These days, I think a lot about why I left my country , but I had no choice. When I still see my fellow Eritreans making the journey, it really breaks my heart especially knowing that approximately 16 000 Eritreans are locked up in Libya and people are still going. Because of my experience, I am even more committed to letting the people know my story as a lesson of what can happen.”
Male Urban Eritrean Refugee, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia