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.