CarolineDeVries

Home thoughts from abroad

‘I was born in Bamako in Mali. I lived there in the family house until five years ago. I decided to move to France to work and send money back home.
I didn’t have any choice, really. There is only me and my older brother, the head of the family, who are earning a bit of money.

I used to send about 200 Euros home every month, but I can’t do it anymore because the shop I was working for as a security agent went bankrupt and fired me. I am working now only a few hours early in the morning and evenings to get the bins out in the streets in Paris.

I am living in Epinay-sous-Senard, a quiet suburb in the South of Paris, sharing a flat in a block estate with a Malian couple and their baby. I am in a very precarious condition because my salary cannot guarantee my rent, transport card and food and I am in debt.I have no papers. I’m living in fear. At any time, I can be checked by the police and sent back to Mali. I am currently taking the necessary steps to obtain a residency card.

I want my situation to be straightened out but it’s such a long process, it can take up to five years.
If I go to Mali now, in my situation, I can’t ever come back to France. I have no hope in the future.

I am the only one in the family who left Mali.
I haven’t seen my wife for five years. When I left, she was pregnant with twins. I have never seen my girls, only in pictures’