I fled Eritrea in 2007 Because I no longer wanted to serve in the army. Military service is mandatory in Eritrea. I was picked up from home and taken to the army. You don’t have a choice. You’re told you don’t need to serve for more than ten years, but that’s not true. Once you’re […]

I fled Iraq in 2006 Because my husband was threatened with death. He was a Shi’a Muslim and worked for “the enemy” since 2004, an American company. But my husband refused to quit his job. It was wartime after all, finding another job would not have been easy. Suddenly, in March 2006, an attack was […]

Ik ontvluchtte Ethiopië in 2011 Omdat ik vreesde voor mijn leven. Mijn vader was onderdeel van een politieke beweging, het Oromo Liberation Front. Hij hielp anderen in hun strijd voor gelijke rechten. Maar dit stond onze regering niet toe, en ze namen hem mee. Waarnaartoe? We hadden geen idee! Pas na drie maanden vonden we […]

I fled Iraq in 2003 Because of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. In Iraq I was a Ba’ath Party member. I was ambitious and wanted to go to university after high school. But there I was only admitted if I was a member of the largest political party. Membership was essential for a […]

I fled Iraq in 1988, I was 16 years old at the time You cannot fight chemical weapons Because we had to flee the poison gas attacks by Saddam Hussein’s army during the Iraq-Iran war My family were members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and part of the peshmerga. In the 1980s, Saddam started […]