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Welcome to Surprising Europe, the only tv series...
about the true life of African migrants in Europe.
In Paris Napoleon III had boulevards built extremely wide and spacious...
to prevent the masses from erecting road blocks.
But you don't need road blocks to raise your voice.
In this episode you will meet Africans in Paris...
who protested the grim status of undocumented migrants.
Today we demand from the government...
the regularization of all those without papers.
And in Italy Africans unite to improve appalling housing conditions...
the result of strong anti-migrant feelings.
I never want to live through such an experience again.
Back in Paris you will meet our friend Wahabou, who, after a tragic fire...
decided to take action to prevent similar fires.
These are the fire extinguishers we have put in all the buildings.
But first we go to London. Our guest reporter Sorious Samura shows you...
you do not necessarily need plastic surgery to become someone else.
As a stranger in a strange land, you stand out for all to see.
But as an illegal immigrant, you have to do the opposite. You have to vanish.
Afraid of being caught, many illegal workers...
will simply take cash in hand jobs. But then they become target for exploitation.
The question is: What can they do?
The answer? Try becoming someone else.
I used to work illegally.
I still know the inside tricks to survive in the hidden economy.
The widespread trick is to borrow the documents of a friend to get a job.
Illegal immigrants call this 'cloning'.
To show you how cloning is done, we will perform our own experiment.
We will take one undercover reporter and change him into someone else.
And that undercover reporter is me.
This is Mohamed, the person whom I will become.
Mohamed is legally allowed to live and work in this country.
But he is no ideal candidate: the person you want to become...
is supposed to look like you. I'll let you be the judge of that.
I will now try to get a job in a care home.
Did you bring anything, like a passport?
I've got indefinite leave to remain, so that allows me to work.
Yes. Okay, that's lovely.
We'll take a photocopy of that. -Whilst the passport is copied...
the difference between Mohamed's picture and me is hardly noticed.
And this is the key to how cloning...
can by-pass really important security measures.
This care home will perform all the necessary checks, but in reality...
they're not checking up on me. They're checking up on Mohamed.
His documents. And all of these are real.
I am the fake. The chance to spot me as a fake came when I showed them...
a picture which wasn't mine they didn't look at carefully enough.
To speed up the background check, I am told to bring my driving licence.
Two days later, I return with Mohamed's licence.
You've lost weight since that... or... Oh, you've put weight on, okay.
This is really young.
At last the manager notices the difference...
between the photograph and myself.
But that doesn't stop her from offering me a job.
Once it's been gone for a week we can phone up for a POVA check...
so you can come start your induction and things like that.
Two weeks after the first interview I return for my first day at work...
as Mohamed, care assistant.
Hi there. -Morning.
Caring for the elderly and disabled is the type of demanding, low-paying job...
that not many want to do.
For years illegal immigrants have contributed substantially to fill in the gap.
But this is becoming more and more difficult.
Immigration Service. Immigration.
I'm tagging along on a raid by British Immigration Services.
Just in this butcher shop alone...
the officers have found enough work for the rest of the day.
When I was working here illegally...
cloning was a risk worth taking, because one could find an employer.
Today it's not just clones who face criminal charges. Employers do as well.
Will illegal immigrants find another way to work around the system?
Well, that is an important question.
If you know of ways to work around the system, leave a note on the website.
Hardly any migrants in Europe end up in luxurious bungalows...
spacious mansions or expensive penthouses.
Living conditions in a European city like Paris can sometimes be poor...
or pretty dangerous.
I left Senegal in 1978 leaving my country felt like an escape
I wanted to start a new life in the land of my former colonizer
Paris, the French capital, the most beautiful city in the world
Wahabou came to Paris from Senegal as a teenager.
His family lived in a building with many Africans on Boulevard Vincent-Auriol.
Then one day he got the shock of his life.
This is where it happened.
4 or 5 years ago now.
It looks totally different now. They are constructing a new building here.
one night after a hard day's work while I was watching TV
I heard my children cry out I told them: get back to bed, it's late
My little sister called me on the phone. She said:
'Come quick, our building's on fire.' I took my car and came immediately.
there were flames, high like mountains torching the corridor
The first image I saw was my mother coming down from the 4th floor.
She came down the fireman's ladder. All my brothers and sisters were saved.
And then I thought of the other people still up there.
When I saw all those flames...
I realised not everyone would make it out alive.
don't move I'll call the fire brigade
daddy isn't strong enough to fight this inferno
in a building like this we can only close our eyes and pray
Almost 20 people died, especially children.
Everybody in that building knew each other.
I pass by here every day.
I am always reminded of what happened here.
fire prevention association
After the fire I founded an organisation...
in memory of the children who died there.
I called it 'Malaika', which means 'angel' in Arabic.
What we do is go into unsafe buildings...
where we put in smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.
We also train the inhabitants how to act in case of a fire.
In our work we see that many Africans live in unsafe buildings.
There's a building in the 12th district in Paris.
Famous Africans used to live there. Like Boigny, ex-president of the Ivory Coast.
He lived in this building when he was a student.
Today this building has been neglected.
Now when I go into a building I look around very carefully.
I check if there is paper on the floor, if it's clean.
I inspect the smoke detectors and extinguishers. I look everywhere.
It's become a habit.
It is easy for me to talk with the African inhabitants...
because I'm an African myself.
I have credibility with them because of what happened to me.
Nine square metres. Not even that.
For how many people? Three of us: myself, my mother and my little sister.
200 Euros. -That's too much.
We are working people.
They want to raise the rent although they do nothing.
The showers and toilets are not serviced.
We haven't had hot water for 2 years.
Migrants occupy 90 percent of the unsafe buildings here.
They have no choice.
With my organisation I inform young and old...
to prevent that people die as they did in my building.
You have to put water under the door.
You have to scream help from the window.
You have to put a wet towel under the door so the smoke won't come in.
If we can stop our activities in 10 years, then our mission is accomplished.
Isn't he great, this Wahabou from Senegal?
His initiative may have saved the lives of many of our people.
Do you know of other African heroes? Tell us on our website.
For the next item we stay in Paris.
Our guest reporter Lord Ekomy Ndong, the famous rapper from Gabon...
took us to meet a large group of undocumented migrants...
who decided to unite, to get their voices heard.
Hit us with some music, Ekomy.
forgive everything, forget nothing this phrase sums up my state of mind
Nubian, Afro-European remember the history and your own past
I arrived here with my harp, my black belt, my loincloth.
the black bible and the blessings of my mother
'Go, my son, do what you have to do' take your future from this infertile soil
not that France is my garden of Eden given my appearance, name and colour
but we come from afar we didn't come for nothing
God guides our way, Alleluja, Amen
who cares about the hate, the suffering, we can defend ourselves
we come to learn what there is to learn we come to take what there is to take
Black Atlante living in Nantes ex-pivot of the black torment
starting a fire in the middle of the jungle you end up bringing the beast to Nbeng
so to be completely honest considering France's 'soft' past
we like to think that she owes us a little personally I demand that she gives back
Welcome to Paris. I go by the name of Lord Ekomy Ndong.
An African hip-hop artist from Gabon. I wrote a song entitled 'Exile'...
about some of the conditions African people live in.
But I'm talking precisely about illegals.
What the goal for illegals is, unlike many people...
and I wanted you to see the struggle of their daily lives.
Dear comrades, we are together to claim documents...
for more than 3000 people within 2 years.
Today we demand from the government...
the regularization of all those without papers.
I came to France in '93. I thought the hardest part would be over.
When I arrived I felt a bit homeless.
I was surprised by the difficulty of finding work...
housing, and most of all the access to papers.
Sissoko is the spokesman of an organisation...
representing thousands of undocumented migrants in Paris.
Its members live in an abandoned government building in the city centre.
They call it 'The Ministry of the Undocumented'.
Hello. How are you? Will you come to the meeting?
We came together to organise and fight our struggle.
In total we are more than 2000 people from 23 countries...
and all continents are represented.
To illustrate the problems of the undocumented...
Sissoko published a book called 'Letters to my Mother'.
Dear mother, we did our very best to gather food for you.
I will send you three bags of 100 kilos of millet, three bags of 100 kilos of rice.
It gives a touching insight into the life of the troubled.
In 2001 I spent 2 months in prison for not carrying papers.
When I called my mother to tell her I was in prison, she instantly panicked.
Because in my country you go to prison when you've killed someone.
Today strict laws are implemented to punish employers...
who hire undocumented migrants. It's become very difficult to find work...
though many have been in France for years, working and paying taxes.
I've worked for 9 years and contributed income tax...
and paid my social taxes, same as everyone.
But now companies are checked and don't dare to take the risk.
The position of illegals has become harder over the years.
It is getting harder to live in France without papers.
There is no need for unskilled labour anymore like there was in the past.
There is a need for people who reflect and think, engineers.
Before you could hustle, but now everything is controlled.
We used false papers. But now they don't work.
It's over now. You need to have papers or they don't help you.
But we are everywhere in the streets.
The undocumented in Paris are desperate.
Their only hope now is to appeal as a group for the right to work.
Their names are collected for a petition to the French authorities.
And then once again they will take their plea to the streets.
Everyone forward, please. Close up the queue.
What do we want? -Papers.
For whom? -For all.
Since one month I'm with the collective of undocumented migrants.
Demonstrating is the only choice we have.
Some people think you don't need papers.
But in fact you do, to work etcetera.
France is largely responsible for what is happening in our African countries.
So if you set a fire in the jungle...
it is normal that the animals run to a safer place.
Which could be here. But are they welcome?
How are we going to feed our children?
We don't have papers. Without papers we don't work.
Do you want us to work for black wages? No, we need to work officially...
to live like all other French people.
Dear mother, I've been living in France for 13 years now, far from the village.
If I could do it all over again, I'd have preferred to spend them back home.
The legal position of these migrants is constantly changing around Europe.
Help us to keep the information up to date.
Leave your knowledge in a post on our website.
It touches my heart to see so many Africans united.
Let their voices be heard.
Now let's move over to Italy. There the African voice is also loud and clear.
Good evening. It's Saturday, March 12th 2011. We're here from 7 to 8.30 PM.
This is the local radio station, broadcasting for Senegalese residents...
from the heart of the Italian city Brescia.
It is one of the few cities in Italy that has always welcomed migrants.
But populist parties with their anti-immigrant views are on the rise.
In this residence lives Omi. She is from Senegal...
and has lived in Brescia for 11 years. She used to live in this building.
It was called the Prealpino Residence. Prealpino was a unique place.
More than 2000 Senegalese people lived together and helped each other.
Omi ran the restaurant of Prealpino.
Prealpino was a community that was tirelessly looking for work.
A peaceful community...
that never caused any problems to Italians.
I never saw a community that was so lively and industrious.
2 years ago the Senegalese community was evicted from Prealpino Residence.
They woke us at 5 AM.
It really depressed me. They made a fuss.
As if we were thieves or we had done something terrible.
But we didn't do anything. We worked peacefully.
The demolition was greeted with cheers from the populist parties.
Waving their flags, they gathered to drill the first hole in the wall.
Politicians invaded our lives...
and used it to dump their garbage.
I never want to live through such an experience again.
But the African residents did not stand by while their opponents were moving.
Last year illegal migrants held a demonstration in the centre of the city.
They protested a law that makes it impossible to get a residency permit...
and therefore to work legally in Italy.
In the end the migrants occupied a building crane.
Makam Ba was one of the protesters.
It was an illegal demonstration. In the centre they were cornered by the police.
They had no other escape than to climb the crane.
They stayed in the crane for 16 days. In the end it had a positive effect...
because the Council of State annulled the Clandestinity Law.
hard battle without fear
And he had taken action before.
When he was still an undocumented migrant, he dared to sue his employer.
I worked as a caretaker in a riding academy.
At the end of the month he always tried not to pay me.
He gave half the money, or a few hundred euros, whatever.
One I day I told him that I really needed the money to pay my rent.
He said: 'I won't pay you. Instead, I will report you to the police.'
I said: 'Alright.' Because I didn't care anymore if I had to return to Africa.
'I will report you as well.'
I took a lawyer and reported him to the police. We wrote him a letter.
Then he called me at 7 AM and said:
'You should come and pick up your money.'
I said: 'I won't do that. You should talk to my lawyer.'
This case is still in court...
a case of employing illegals without paying them.
Justice is not for free. You need to fight for your rights.
If they don't give it to you, you have to fight for it.
We have fought and we are gaining ground.
It is not a complete victory, but we are full of hope.
Do you know of more examples where action needs to be taken?
Leave a note on our social media platforms.
You can find us on the web.
In the next episode an African woman who will never leave Europe again.
It took me 7 years to fight for my status.
And a man from Ghana who became the first African mayor in Europe.
Our special reporter Ssuuna investigates whether he'd like to grow old in Europe.
So you have been married for 60 years?
Good.
And the next episode is also special...
because I'm going to show you more about my personal story.
So I expect to see you then. But for now, it's a wrap. Au revoir.
When I left Africa I thought that Europe was Europe.
It is a surprising world. It is a better place.
The honest thing is that: There is no place like home.
Home is the best.