51. REUNITED AFTER TEN YEARS: The story of Mez and his little brother Josi: Part One

Asylum Speakers Podcast with Jaz O'Hara: Stories of Migration and Displacement

This is an episode and a story that I’ve been wanting to share for nearly two years... and I am so happy to finally be able to do so!

This episode is about my Eritrean foster brother Mez and his younger brother Josi. A few years after Mez left Eritrea to avoid compulsory military service, so too did his little brother Josi. Josi is two years younger than Mez and they grew up doing everything together. They wore the same clothes, liked all the same things and Mez described him as being his little shadow. So despite Mez’s warnings of how dangerous it was, it’s no wonder that when he also became of age to be called up to the military, Josi chose to follow in his older brothers footsteps and flee the dictatorship in which he lived, in the hope of joining his older brother here in the UK.

Unfortunately, since Mez made the 9-month journey, things have only got harder, and Josi has spent the last four years on this journey. Most of that time he has been trapped in Libya, trying to cross the Mediterranean sea to make it to the safety of Europe. He has attempted the sea crossing four times, been captured by the Libyan coastguard four times, thrown into Libyan smuggler prison and suffered the unimaginable horrors that come with that. Beatings, torture, modern day slavery, starvation and more.

This is the story of how Mez has spent the last few years doing everything he possibly can to get his brother to safety. It's a very personal episode and I hope you enjoy it. Part two coming soon!

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