Jazzi has a big smile on his face as he poses near the river Main. His Facebook photos show a young man who is happy and proud to have made it to Germany. Jazzi has sent these photos to his family members in Pakistan. This 30-year old asylum seeker's journey has been a long and complicated one. Everything began three, four years ago. "I was abducted by Sunni men in 2013. They beat me so hard that I thought I was going to die. I was covered in blood," he recalls with a tremble in his voice. "They wanted to convert me but I refused. I could never betray Imam Huseein [nephew of the prophet Mohammed]." Jazzi is Pakistani but he is also a Schiite. This confession of Islam is a small minority in a country where the population mostly follows Sunni Islam. There have been incidences of religious violence against Schiites in Pakistan for years. As a journalist, Jazzi reported about the violence and became a mouthpiece for his minority in Karachi, the country's most populous city. A dangerous battle: "As Schiites, we were discriminated against, persecuted, rejected. Every day, there had been dead bodies of Schiites in the streets of Pakistan," he says. To save his life, Jazzi decided to flee the country. On March 8, 2016, he went into exile, hoping he would be able to provide safety for his family in the future. "First, one of us has to make it to Europe so that the others can follow," he explained. His journey began in Karachi and took him across Iran to Turkey before he got into a boat that would take him to Greece. But not without having to confront a smuggler. "They treated us like dirt, not like humans. They only helped us for the money." Jazzi paid 5,000 euros for the passing. On March 17, he arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos. Dead-end Greece Disappointment set in soon after Jazzi entered Europe. "It was the start of an administrative hell." Because of the EU-Turkey deal, refugees not entitled to asylum were to be sent back to Turkey. The only possibility to escape deportationwas a successful request for asylum in Greece. But Jazzi didn't want to take the risk of rejection, he wanted to continue towards Western Europe, but the much frequented Balkan Route had been closed. Jazzi was registered at a reception center for migrants in Moria, Lesbos, where even the volunteers were overwhelmed and did not know how to deal with the migrants. "We are registering them all, but there is no guarantee that it will help them," a volunteer from England complained. A few days later, there was a bad surprise: Jazzi and hundreds of Pakistani refugees were arrested and taken into custody without being told why. They were taken to the Paranesti dention center in the north-eastern part of the island. "We had no information, we did not know what was going to happen to us," Jazzi recalled. "We were not handed any written form, we were not informed about our rights. Nobody answered our questions," he added. Constance Tyson of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that there was no assistance for migrants in some detention centers in Greece, but according to law, the right to police assistance was mandatory. "In reality, this is not the case at all. Migrants have to look for attorneys to help them," she said. For six months, Jazzi was detained in Paranesti under bad conditions. "We had three meals a day, but in very small amounts." In September, the Pakistani journalist was released again without charge. He was not entitled for asylum and in order to remain in Greece, his only option was to contact smugglers. "It cost me 3000 Euros for my passage to Germany," he said. A few of his relatives were already living in Germany, where he arrived on January 2017. The German adventure Once in Germany, more bureaucratic hurdles had to be crossed. The asylum application, the long waiting period to hear back on the authorities' decision, looking for an apartment and so on. Jazzi first moved in with his older brother, who has been living in Frankfurt for 20 years. Jazzi is proud of the things his brother has achieved. "He is working at the airport and is married to a Polish woman employed at the Pakistani embassy," he said. After filing a request for asylum, he was assigned to a refugee center in Kelkheim, northwest of Frankfurt. He received a monthly benefit payment of 320 euros and took German language courses. Everything went well until the day Jazzi received a message saying his asylum application had been rejected. "They demanded videos or written documents as proof for the suffering," Jazzi explained. For asylum to be granted in Germany, sufficient proof must be provided of why protection is needed. Jazzi did not suceed in convincing authorities that he would be in danger upon returning to Pakistan. "They expect me to have personal enemies. The situation of Schiites in Pakistan does not suffice as a reason," he said. Now Jazzi is lodging an appeal against the decision, but the legal procedure can take a long time - around eight months, he assumes. What will he do should his appeal be rejected? Jazzi does not have a solution, but he has not given up hope yet. Leaving Europe and returning to Pakistan is out of the question. Author: Nastasia Tepeneag, Translation: Charlotte Hauswedell *Name changed to protect identity