Imagine this

You are crammed into a militia-run prison in the Libyan Desert. It is the morning after a failed attempt to escape. Militia guards walk in. They want to know who lead the attempt. 

No-one speaks.

The guards leave.

They come back a few hours later with a machine gun. 

“If you don’t tell us,” they say, “we will kill all of you.” 

Three men stand up. 

A guard points his gun at one of them, and, right in front of you, he shoots him dead. The guards then take the second man and, again, before your eyes, beat him to death. The third person they take with them. You never see that person again. 

This all happened in front of “Barry,” a sweet, kindhearted, deeply traumatized 22 year old from Gambia. And it is not the whole story. He too was shot in the leg by militia as he tried to escape a militia-run facility. He lost his best friend in Libya. They were separated, deliberately. The last thing he heard his friend cry out was his name. He has had no word from him since. 

It is far too easy to dehumanize people, particularly when the one word you always here is “migrant.” 

When you hear the word “migrant” please think of young men like Barry. He and far too many like him need our compassion not our contempt.

April 2018