African migrants seeking UK 'dream'

Panorama's Paul Kenyon visited a derelict house near the French port of Calais to hear why so many young African migrants remain determined to reach Britain.

The cellar steps are thick with oil and the walls a congealed buttery yellow. They're steep and twisting, and someone's daubed graffiti in a language I do not recognise.
Clearing work at a Calais migrant camp
The French government has recently dismantled migrant camps in Calais

At the bottom someone has tried to light a fire, and the charcoal remains have been kicked around in the gloom. There is a stinking curtain across a doorway, and when I tug it, a swarm of silent flies tumble out, and bump around the cameraman's light.

On the other side is the skeleton of an arm chair, some half eaten cans of food and an overwhelming smell of stale urine. Upstairs is not much better.

Here in Calais, this is home to around 30 men and two women. They are mostly young and ambitious and some speak several languages.

War zone

They have dreams of becoming doctors, engineers and teachers, yet here in this derelict, abandoned house, they are holed up in a cellar as if they are hiding from the bombs and bullets of a war zone. For many, the sounds of war would ring familiar.

None of them are from here - Europe. They are holed up in this now infamous French port city hoping to find a lorry which they can clamber inside or lash themselves onto.

They tell me they'll even try to cling onto the chassis, which they describe as the best place to catch a ride that they all hope will take them across the Channel.

On the treacherous journey out of Africa, the UK is often whispered about in reverential tones, as a crime-free, multi-cultural nirvana

The lorries that can deliver them to their final destination rumble by every night. They are on their way to Dover - the place that this collection of migrants hiding in the cellar have been planning, plotting and praying to somehow reach.

One of them is called Alex and he is Eritrean. He served in the army of his home country for four years. In Eritrea, mandatory conscription has no apparent end. Some men are conscripted as teenagers and, if they are fortunate enough to survive the perpetual fighting, they are still in the military until late middle age.

Alex told me he grew tired of fighting and deserted. He knows that if he ever returned he would be jailed in grim conditions alongside the politicians, religious leaders, journalists and his fellow deserters. He said he feared he would never come out.

Some call Eritrea Africa's North Korea. It is a brutal regime which is internationally condemned. Those who escape, should they make it safely to Europe, are at the top of the list for political asylum.

Boat burst

Alex reached Europe after crossing the Sahara in a truck crammed with 40 or so others. To preserve the limited supply of water, they had a tactic - they poured petrol into it. It made them want to vomit. After that they only sipped when they really needed it.

Alex ended up on a notorious people-smuggling beach called Zuwarah, in Libya. From there it is 180 miles to Europe. He says he paid around $500 for a place in an inflatable boat.
Clearing work at a Calais migrant camp
French authorities are attempting to dissuade migrants

When they were about 10 minutes into the crossing, it burst. They all tumbled into the sea. There was still some air in the tubes of the boat and despite the chaos, most of them managed to cling on. Two drowned.

After several more failed attempts, Alex made it across the Mediterranean to Italy, the nearest European soil. But Italy was not what he was aiming for. Alex smuggled himself in trucks and trains, travelling further northwards until he arrived at Calais, just 34km from the UK.

He could have claimed political asylum in France, but he resisted.

Despite the views of some commentators in this country, his motivation was not the UK's benefit system.

'Tolerant' Britain

In covering this story of African migration for more than two years, I have met hundreds who braved this clandestine route into Europe and none of them have even heard of hand outs, free housing, or benefit money to be had.

The reasons they want to reach the UK are much more straightforward - they believe it is more tolerant than elsewhere in Europe, they can speak English and they think they can find a job.
African migrants off Tenerife
Many young African migrants risk their lives to reach Europe

Outside the broken-down house with the deep cellar, I tried to explain to Alex that the UK might not be as tolerant of new, illegal migrants and asylum seekers as he thinks.

"Even so, at least there's no crime there," he replied. "I know I can find peace."

"No crime?" I said "There are robberies and murders and kids carry knives in big cities."

He looked genuinely astonished at what I have told him. On the treacherous journey out of Africa, the UK is often whispered about in reverential tones, as a crime-free, multi-cultural nirvana. I have encountered this perception many times.

The men and women hoping for their chance to make that final leap from Calais to the UK are a tiny hard-core of asylum seekers.

Most give up on the idea well before reaching the English Channel. And far from being plagued by asylum seekers, as some in Britain like to suggest, the truth is very different.

Asylum applications per capita in the UK sits 13th in Europe, far behind the top nation, which is Malta. Cyprus, Italy and France all receive more applicants for asylum than Britain.

When we left the cellar in Calais, there was a group of Eritreans surrounding our car. It was a four-wheel drive with a big boot space to fit all the camera gear. The crowd parted apologetically as we approached, and I discovered one man lying on the ground with his head beneath the chassis. I assumed there was an oil leak.

"There is enough room under there, but nothing to hold onto" said one of the men. He was not joking.

When we opened the boot, one of the women tried to slide passed me and tapped a large case to see if it was empty.

"I am very light," she said. "If you are stopped at the port, you just say I broke in. You didn't know I was there."

Two weeks later, the French authorities raided the broken down house in Calais and arrested everyone inside. I have no idea where they are now, but Alex was lucky. He had already applied for asylum in France, and is now living in refugee hostel waiting to hear the result.

Panorama: Migrants Go Home!, BBC One, Monday, 5 October at 2030BS

A product of their homeEmailPrintNormal fontLarge fontOctober 9, 2009

A product of their home
October 9, 2009

AdvertisementDiafrix are, undeniably, Aussie hip-hop. By Andrew Drever.

IT SEEMS odd, given Australia's vast multiculturalism, but there have been disquieting local scene mutterings and murmurings that Footscray hip-hop outfit Diafrix aren't ''true blue'' enough to be considered part of Australian hip-hop.

Maybe it's their music, which fuses reggae, traditional African influences, soul, dancehall and drum'n'bass, as well as hip-hop. Perhaps it's that their two frontmen are former African refugees. Maybe it's that their lyrics don't contain any cussing. Or is it that it's a world away from the typical and popularised Australian ''skip-hop''?

Whatever it is, Diafrix's Momo (Mohamed Komba) and Azmarino (Khalid Abdulwahab) have a strong view on the matter.

''We are part of the Australian hip-hop scene,'' Abdulwahab says determinedly, while on a leisurely stroll around Footscray. ''A lot of people say no but that's where the debate starts. Why aren't we part of Australian hip-hop? We got a frickin' ABN! Yeah, we are different. We don't do the same music as them but we are part of that culture.''

Komba arrived in Melbourne 23 years ago as a three-year-old with part of his family from the Comoros Islands, off the south-east coast of Africa near Madagascar.

Abdulwahab, 27, is from war-torn Eritrea (in north-east Africa) who, having left his family and three siblings in Eritrea, undertook a decade-long search for citizenship in Italy, Jordan and Switzerland before settling here in 2000.

The duo met in 2001 at a hip-hop workshop run by TZU's Joelistics. Naming themselves after a Footscray cafe (Cafe D'Afrique), the duo were joined by the largely unseen producer Ptero Stylus (Glenn Christiansen), who is responsible for the worldly palette of sounds on their debut album, Concrete Jungle.

''He [Christiansen] had really strong hip-hop, really strong drum'n'bass and really strong reggae production,'' Abdulwahab says. ''So when we did Concrete Jungle, we were sitting comfortably within those genres because we'd been doing them for so many years. It wasn't just typical hip-hop.''

Both Abdulwahab and Komba, who see themselves as products of their dislocation and displacement, conduct music workshops and community-based mentorships for disadvantaged youth and immigrants, as well as holding down day jobs as youth workers.

''We're rapping for our culture,'' Abdulwahab says. ''Being part of the African thing, because of our backgrounds we can't deny that and we don't want to mess it up, because there's only a few of us out there talking the other side of the story.''

Diafrix play at the Espy, St Kilda, on Friday, October 30.

Chalice Gold reports death of employee, contractors in Eritrea

Chalice Gold reports death of employee, contractors in Eritrea
October 07 2009, 2:21PM
Chalice Gold Mines Ltd has reported the death of one its employees and two of contractors in a shooting incident near its gold project in Eritrea.

Chalice said in a statement on Wednesday that the incident occurred on a public road 110km south of its Zara project and 35km northwest of the town of Keren.

"The deaths are believed to be the result of a shooting incident and an investigation by the Eritrean authorities is underway," the Perth-based company said.
Executive chairman Tim Goyder said the incident appeared to be an isolated event unrelated to Chalice and its operations.

"Executive director Mike Griffiths is in Eritrea to assist where possible," the company said.

Chalice said the scoping study for the Zara project remained on track for completion later this month.

Shares in the company were up half a cent, or 1.3 per cent, at 39 cents at 1417 AEDT

Gippsland targets base metals, gold in Eritrea - shares jump

Tuesday, October 06, 2009
by Peter Gonnella & Andrew McCrea

Perth-based Gippsland Ltd (ASX:GIP; DB:GIX) subsidiary Nubian Resources plc has picked up three prospecting licences in the state of Eritrea that it likes for their base metals and gold prospectivity.

Investors liked the news and sent Gippsland shares 56% higher at one stage, on turnover of 15.22 million shares traded.

The licences span an overall 300 sq km and contain the Abu Dabbab and Nuweibi tantalum resources, which total 142.5 million tonnes and are JORC-Code compliant, however, the company will initially focus on the search for base metals and gold.

Abu Dabbab and Nuweibi occur in the mineral endowed Precambrian Nubian-Arabian Shield, which also takes in the nearby Centamin Egypt-owned (TSX:CEE; ASX:CNT; AIM:CEY) new Sukari gold mine in Egypt.

Sukari hosts current reserves totalling 142 million tonnes grading 1.4 g/t Au for a contained 6.4 million ounces of gold.

In addition, in recent years there have been a number of gold and base metal discoveries made in Eritrea, including Bisha, Zara and around Asmara.

Gippsland plans to undertake an initial sampling program on its new licences during October and November involving the collection of drainage channel samples within the new project areas.

This geochemical technique is known to be effective in the exploration for gold and base metal deposits in Eritrea, according to the company.

Its drainage samples will be analysed for copper, lead, zinc and gold mineralisation.

Jack Telford chief executive of Gippsland said the licences are located in a region that has been the subject of “minimal previous exploration but has the potential to host high-grade gold and base metal deposits”.

Recently, the news pipeline turned positive for the company as leading Australian businessman Ian Gandel’s company Abbotsleigh Pty Ltd provided the Company with a loan of AU$800,000 for working capital.

Which, he elected to convert (the loan) into shares via the issue of 80 million shares to Abbotsleigh Pty Ltd. Abbotsleigh’s shareholding equates to 18.89% of the Company's fully paid ordinary shares on issue.

Gippsland has a world scale tantalum resource at Abu Dabbab in Egypt. With the shut down of some tantalum projects, Abu Dabbab’s project economics will be further boosted by the co-production of tin metal (as well as tantalum revenues).

Additionally, feldspar production, is scheduled to commence after both tantalum & tin production starts, will add substantially to the company's bottom line return.

An African Scorecard Governance Counts
Saturday, December 06, 2008 12:04 PM
(Source: International Herald Tribune)trackingBy Robert I. Rotberg

African governance is getting better. That is a major, surprising, finding of the second annual Index of African Governance, produced at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and released last month.

Given continued conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 3 million hapless citizens have been killed in civil war since 1990; intensified mayhem in the Sudan, where at least 300,000 Arabs and Africans have been slaughtered since 2003; continued antagonism between north and south in the Ivory Coast, in the Nigerian Delta, in northern Uganda and in Somalia - no governance or bad governance might seem more the sub-Saharan African trend than good governance.

This year's Index, however, shows that 34 of 48 governments have begun delivering improved results to their citizens. Multiparty systems are now more normal in Africa; most countries demand that their leaders step down after two terms. Most economies are open, with old-fashioned socialist ideas now largely junked. Millions of Africans are on the Internet .

Liberia, the most improved country in Africa according to the Index, moved up in rank from 44th to 38th place since last year, largely due to the leadership of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first woman head of state, and to her efforts of post- conflict reconstruction. Countries like Eritrea, with appalling human rights records and suppression of press freedom, moved down strikingly, from 39th to 41st. In both cases, and in nearly all of the others in the Index, political leadership quality helps to determine performance and final national achievements.

The top performers in the Index were the countries, many small, that have been well managed since their achievement of independence from colonial rule. Mauritius, the Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Gabon, Ghana, Sao Tome and Senegal lead the list.

In each of those countries citizens are comparatively wealthy, mostly literate, safe (except for South Africa), free of domestic conflict and accustomed to solid rule of law performance with moderate corruption. Gabon is the outlier in this group, with low scores in the Index for participatory fairness but high scores for security (in a tightly run state).

The African countries internally at war comprise the last 10, from top to bottom: Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia, Eritrea, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Angola, Sudan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia.