I started making this album back in January, so it has been a long journey. It all started of as a kind of a grief process. The boy in all the pictures is an Afghan asylum seeker. He came to Norway as an unaccompanied minor in 2016. He fled Afghanistan after watching his mother being brutally murdered by a familymember and he himself being beaten almost to death by the same person for rejecting to join the Taliban as a child soldier.
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| He is so gentle, polite and helpful. He is a true gentleman, holding the door open for me, carry the shoppingbags, always ready to help in any way. |
He is such a beautiful boy, and I really want to show him off, but to protect his identity I must hide his face.
The current rightwing government in Norway takes great pride in having the harshsed immigrationlaws in Europa, so they rejected the boys application for asylum, they think he can go back and stay with his family (you know, the one who killed his mother and almost beat him to death). But since he was only 16 at the time, they said that he could stay in Norway until he turned 18. Because when you are 18, you are a grown man and can easily fend for yourself in a country torn by 40 years of war. And you know, when you are 18, all your familyfeudes are bygones. And of course - lets not forget that the Norwegian government thinks that Afghanistan is a really safe place.
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| I think I managed to put in about 70-80 pictures in this "little" album. |
So, when he turned 18 in January we expected that he would be deported back to Afghanistan.
He has an older brother who has been granted asylum in Norway, he lives in a town about 5 hours drive away from here. My boy decided to move there to stay with his brother until deportationday.
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| Here is the way to to push ups... |
And this is where my grief process begins. This boy has chosen me to be the one he calls "mum". He speaks so highly about his mother, so it was very emotional for me to be given this "title". He is a proud boy who keeps his emotions very private, so when he said to me " You know Gunn, I have been all alone for 10 years, nobody has been taking care of me or looking out for me, and then I met you", I had a hard time holding my tears back.
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| He loves taking selfies. |
When he moved to his brother in January I was convinced that I would never see him again. Everyday I waited for the call saying that he was sent back. Everyday I would pace around, watching for that green little dot on messenger telling me that he was online. And you would not believe the relief when I saw him log on to messenger and send me "Hi, how are you 💗?" The police did not come for him today either.....
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| Like most teenagers - his phone is never far away. |
In the end of March I could not take it anymore and I went to see him - one last time. I was tearing myself apart wondering what was going on - why did they not send him? I decided to take action. I asked for his papers and I got a lawyer to look at his case. I turned out that he was just forgotten in the system. I am not a believer, but there sure was someone or something watching out for him. The Norwegian system does not forget something like this. Usually the police will come the day they turn 18.
His case did look hopeless. He had been rejected twice and it is not easy to appeal after the second rejection - I read his papers over and over and over - and had nothing.
In May the system finally remembered him and the police came to pick him up for deportation.
He was not at home that morning - so the police did not find him. Again, I think someone or something was protecting him. Due to a recent operation, the doctors had given him a no-flight order, so the deportation was stopped, but he was scared, almost paralyzed - to him; being sent back is a death sentence.
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| I wish I could show you the smile on his face this day. |
But, by this time I had finally found something in is papers that I hoped could help him.
2 weeks ago he was granted a 6 month permit to stay in Norway - and later this year we will make an appeal and hopefully they will turn around and give him asylum.
The situation is still unclear, but he is safe for now - and I have finally started to hope that my boy will have a fair chance in life and a hope for an happy ending. And this eventually gave me the motivation to finish this little album.
I hope you can all give him some love.
I have made space on the back of all the tags to write, and maybe one day I will be able to write his story there.
Thanks for stopping by!
I am entering this album to the following challenges:
