Personal stories

The story of Mary, victim of 'an empty promise'

''I wish people would realize that we all have the same blood running through our veins'', says Mary, who has left Nigeria for Italy. A video made by the organization PositiveNegatives talks about her story.

"They threw my wheelchair into the water"

In search of a better life in Europe, Qusai managed to cross the sea to reach Greece despite being tied to a wheelchair. The story of his journey from Syria to the Netherlands appears in a video produced by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

'I've suffered so much'

This is the story of Aisha, a woman who fled from Ivory Coast to save her daughter from genital mutilation, but ended up in the hands of people smugglers.

Ahmed: On hunger strike for asylum

For almost a month, 34 Sub-Saharan Africans have been staging a hunger strike in Tunisia. They want their asylum applications to be reviewed for the possibility of being included in Europe’s relocation programme. One of the hunger strikers, Ahmed from Ivory Coast, recounts his story.

Souleymane's journey : death and slavery in Libya

Souleymane Diallo says his journey to reach Italy from Guinea "is hard to tell because it is truly horrible, although it remains part of my life." His trip, which he described during a meeting in Rome, is a story of death, suffering, slavery and hope for a better future.