NIKOLAJ BENDIX SKYUM LARSEN

In the name of the merciful god.

 

My name is Muhammad Al Jamil, and I am from Egypt, I am 27 years old. I have been in France for five years, and I lived in Egypt for 22 years. Since the beginning of me existing in this world, I have been one of those who are lost. I have been working since I was twelve years old, I always have worked so hard and tried to live, and like many others, I could not, I could not even had the chance to finish my education, and by the time I became twenty, I had the dilemma, the dilemma of all the country, the dilemma of money. I did not have money, I did not have money to live, I did not have money to get married, I did not have money for anything. So by the time I became twenty two I decided to run away from this life and go to Europe to build a better future for myself, so I can fix my life and my family’s.

 

The way I arrived to Europe was illegal and cost 50.000 Egyptian pound. My family and neighbors helped me to collect the amount to be able to travel to a place I did not know anything about.

I traveled by boat and our journey on the sea took seven difficult days where the boat was about to drawn with us more than once, but thank god, we did not. I arrived to the Italian beaches, where a group of the Italian mafia came and took us to a place where we were locked up for ten days until we paid the money. After that I stayed in Italy for a week looking for a job but without luck, so I decided to go to France. In France I had six tough months being without work and with an increasing debt that eventually reached 1500 Euros, and I thought about going back to my country more than once, but it was already too late. Eventually I found a job in constructions, and after five months or so I started making enough money to repay my debt gradually, which took me 3 years to fully pay it back.

Shortly after I suddenly realized that I have been a migrant for five years without even noticing and I still do not have anything!  With the project I was working on being done, I was done with it too.

But I cannot go back yet! I do not have enough money to allow me to have my own place or to get married or anything, how am I supposed to live a normal life like everybody?!

 

I like French people because they respect everyone and they love their country, and the police here treats everyone with respect, even the ones who have no papers to proof their identity.

Eventually I want to go back to my country, to be among my people, my friends and family, in this country, not only I could not find a family, but not even friends! I just want to make some money so I can have a reasonable amount to get by, and return peacefully to my country. Because for me, I actually have dreams, and I am staying here until I manage to accomplish some of them. I want to have my own place so I can get married and live there, and have enough money to have a small business to make living, maybe a car that I can use for work, and I do not want more than just that, I just want a simple good life that would help me avoiding to go back to the difficult days I had in my country, because I honestly cannot go back there. And I know I cannot reach these results without god’s help and hard work, so I am intending to stay here and work hard for now, so I am going to keep fighting until I get a job and make some money. This has been the story of my struggle so far till this day, and I have no idea what the future is going to bring, only god knows, so all what I want is to work with something that god allows and make living.

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May peace be upon you all.