TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/070389/07038900.058

Text File | 1990-09-22 | 2KB | 33 lines

WORLD, Page 26

A Man in Orbit


    A young Eritrean from northern Ethiopia, William Ahmed was
arrested in 1984 on suspicion of harboring guerrillas from the
Eritrean People's Liberation Front and was packed off to a prison
in Addis Ababa. Tortured repeatedly over the next four years, Ahmed
was finally moved to a hospital. From there, he escaped to
Djibouti, where he purchased a Somalian passport and a ticket to
Canada.

    Last October Ahmed set off for Canada, only to become a refugee
in orbit. His journey included catching connecting flights in
Cyprus, Cairo and Switzerland. When Ahmed landed in Geneva,
immigration authorities found that his passport was about to expire
and returned him to Cairo. But Egyptian authorities refused to
grant him entry. Ahmed was flown to Cyprus, where he languished in
the departure lounge of the Larnaca Airport for a few months.

    Stopping in Cyprus on his way home to England, a Palestinian
traveler fell into conversation with the distraught Ahmed and
alerted the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in
London of Ahmed's plight. Ahmed was soon assured by UNHCR that he
would receive assistance in Cairo, so he flew back to Egypt. But
when the Egyptians tried to send him to Somalia, Ahmed kicked and
screamed. The Somalian Ambassador was called in, and he
acknowledged that Ahmed would be imprisoned if he landed in
Somalia. So the Ethiopian was returned to Cyprus.

    After six more weeks, Ahmed was permitted to enter Britain in
May. Today he is still in the process of securing proper travel
documents, but finally he has been legally classified as a
political refugee.