Beaten and conscripted into Putin’s army: a Somali refugee attempts to reach Europe | Somalia
A year ago, the Somali journalist Ilyas Ahmad Elmi set out for Europe. He had been repeatedly threatened by jihadi extremists at home, and hoped to make it to Germany, where he planned to seek asylum and be with his eight-year-old son. “I left because I wanted to see my son, who I’ve never met … and because I had received threats,” said Elmi, in a telephone interview. Elmi flew to Russia and then travelled over land to Belarus, from where he aimed to cross the border into Poland, often considered a safer route to Europe than the Mediterranean. But instead of a secure route into the EU, Elmi instead suffered months of hardship. He recounts being beaten up by border guards, forced to spend weeks living in a forest and watching a young Somali woman in his group die from lack of medical attention. lyas Ahmad Elmi. In desperation, he says, he went back to Russia, with the hope of crossing into Finland. But before he could reach the border area, he was arrested …
