Illegal Africans in Europe: "To Stay Illegally or To Die"

The BBC-documentary “Living with Illegals” is one of the most compelling documentaries I have seen in years. I have seen it on the blog NEO•GRIOT. (Update March 26: because the video is removed, you can read the story and see the trailer here.

It’s a documentary of the experiences of British journalist Sorious Samura about Africans who are trying to get into Europe illegally. It’s a story about people who sometimes try to get in for years. Some of them live in woods, try to get over barbwire or try to swim to Europe.

Once they are on the mainland they head for the UK, because they feel they will get a better treatment there then in most other European countries. Smuggled in trucks, or hanging underneath trucks they try to reach the UK.

Sometimes I see them in the Amsterdam metro. Unfortunately it is so obvious there are illegal: broken sneakers and summer clothes in the winter.

Sometimes you read in the papers of illegal Africans jumping out of an apartment building because they didn’t want to be caught by the police. Some die, or have very severe injuries.