Migrants ride 'the Beast' from Mexico to the US

By Valeria Perasso BBC Mundo Hispanic affairs correspondent

Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal has spoken with migrants from across Central America who are trying to reach the United States

Every year, thousands of undocumented migrants cling to the wagons of "the Beast", a freight train that runs from southern Mexico to the US-Mexican border, braving bandits, immigration officials and the elements to reach "El Norte".

The BBC spoke to two who survived the perilous journey and made it to California.

Frida Hinojosa, Mexican migrant

Frida Hinojosa says she would make the journey again if she had to

To get to Los Angeles, California, where she has lived since crossing the US-Mexican border without documents five years ago, Frida Hinojosa left her tin shack in Southern Mexico ready to board the "Train of Death".

"It was a fearful journey, filled with uncertainties. Those were probably the worst days of my life," she says.

By train, Ms Hinojosa travelled about 1,100km (684 miles) from the city of Tapachulas, near the border between Guatemala and Mexico, all the way to Mexico City.

"Los garroteros [people armed with garrottes] were running from coach to coach in the middle of the night, asking for money," she says. "They said that even though the train was free and we had not paid for a proper ticket, we had to pay them to be able to ride. And if you had nothing, they would just abuse you, verbally or physically."

The migrants face bee attacks in the Mexican jungle, dehydration, hunger, and violence

The train, she says, was the only means to get to the North, as she had very little money and no job, and most of those who ride the Beast take between 10 and 15 different trains to cover the distance.

The train is most dangerous for women, many of whom are raped or coerced into performing sexual favours in exchange for protection.

"I was travelling on my own and, as a woman, really bad things happened. It was very sad. I had no money and most of what I got from begging at every train stop I had to give to others, who would then look after me."

"The Beast is a much worse place for women than it is for men," she says.

From Mexico City she continued by bus, stopping in Guadalajara, where she worked to raise money to pay the "coyote" to guide her over the border. She finally reached Tijuana, a border city on Mexico's west coast. On the other side of the fence lay San Diego, California.

Her son joined her in Los Angeles 18 months later. She is now married to a Guatemalan who helped her get the documents that allowed her to remain in the US legally.

"I saw so many sad things," she says.

"I saw a mother whose child died on the train and had to bury him on the Mexican side of the border before continuing her journey. I saw rapes, I saw murders. Knowing that I was doing this for my son gave me strength and hope to keep going. Now he's a grown-up, God bless him, and we are together."

Most migrants carry little: a change of clothing, money for bare essentials, maybe a mobile phone

Ms Hinojosa is unemployed, a situation she blames on the US economy. But going back home is not an immediate option for her.

Would she brave the Beast again?

"Of course I would," she replies without hesitation.

"All I got here makes it worth the ordeal. I wouldn't have achieved anything if I had stayed [in Mexico]. Most migrants on the train shared a dream, we are in it together."

Omar, migrant from El Salvador

Omar failed in his first attempt to reach 'El Norte' and was deported back to El Salvador

Omar, a construction worker who now lives in Los Angeles, started his journey as an undocumented migrant in January 1990.

"Things back then were slightly different, less dangerous perhaps than what they are now," says Omar, who asked the BBC not to use his surname.

He boarded a bus in his native Apopa, a small town in central El Salvador. To reach the US-Mexico border, he first had to travel through Guatemala and Mexico.

A four-day bus ride left him in southern Mexico, ready to board the Train of Death.

"The cargo trains didn't stop, you had to jump on board before it was gone," he says.

"At the beginning it was scary. I let one train go past because I thought I couldn't do it. Then I got used to it. But it's true that your physical abilities determine whether you make it all the way north or you just give up or suffer an accident that can be fatal."

Back then, he recalls, migrants did not have to reach the roof of the carriages for their clandestine journey.

Train guards would open an empty coach for them, with no seats or ventilation, and would seal the doors in between stops.

He travelled for hours jammed into a car with about 200 fellow migrants and suffered severe dehydration.

He had his first glimpse of southern Mexico in the state of Chiapas, where the train made its first stop. He spent the night at a shelters for migrants volunteers had set up along the road.

"I was emotionally drained," he recalls. "I saw people dying falling from the metal stairs of the Beast, some of them mutilated under its wheels. I started thinking that it was harder than I'd been told. I didn't know if I could do it."

Days later, he ran into immigration officers and was deported back to El Salvador.

The majority of the Beast riders are Salvadoran, Guatemalan, or Honduran

Six months after that he tried again, asking an acquaintance to guide him in exchange for money.

"Sexual abuses were common, as well as extortions from the authorities who asked for a "mordida" [bribe] to let us go through a checkpoint," he says.

He was mugged and beaten on board the Beast. He also lost all his money: he had given it to a woman he had befriended, thinking that it would be safer with her, but she was also attacked.

To raise the cash to continue, he worked for a month as a cleaner and gardener for a wealthy elderly couple of Russian origin in Tonalá, in the state of Jalisco.

"They wanted to help and let me sleep in their garage during the night," he says.

The memories of the train, he says, are still engraved in his body.

"I've never felt such heat in my life," he recalls.

"Every time I feel extreme heat, all those memories come back. I saw my own death, I felt it and it felt so real while I was riding that train."

Source

Jerry Brown signs 'California Dream Act' into law

By Peter Bowes BBC News, Los Angeles

The legislation has sparked debate on campuses across California

The governor of California, Jerry Brown, has signed into law legislation allowing illegal immigrants to receive state aid to attend college.

Supporters of the California Dream Act, as it is called, say it will benefit the state economically.

However, critics argue that it condones entry into the US without proper documentation.

About 2,500 students are expected to qualify for grants under the new legislation.

Governor Brown, a Democrat, said the law would benefit the state by giving top students a chance to improve their lives and, he said, "the lives of all of us".

But, in a state with a huge immigrant population, critics say the law encourages the illegal immigration by granting access to state resources previously reserved for legal residents.

Opponents of the law add that it should not have been passed without major overhaul of America's immigration rules.

California's last governor, the Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, refused to sign the legislation.

Source

How foreign doctors save lives in rural America

By Franz Strasser BBC News, West Virginia

Dr Afram and Dr Salem talk about their experiences in rural West Virginia

Continue reading the main story

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Many rural areas in the US suffer from a shortage of doctors. Unable to attract Americans, they have turned to foreign-born physicians.

The city of Logan in West Virginia has just 1,779 citizens. The nearest large city, Charleston, is an hour away, via winding roads through the Appalachian mountains. Logan is surrounded by rural land, and is in an area which has lost half its population since the 1950s.

It's a far cry from just about anything that would attract an affluent doctor from overseas. And yet they come.

Dr Salem is the only gastroenterologist in the area

Just 232 doctors per 100,000 residents work in the state of West Virginia. One neighbouring state has more than 400.

The US Department of Health designates 51 out of 55 counties in the state as "medically under-served areas". Logan County is among them, and that is precisely why doctors from all parts of the world fill the hallways of Logan Regional Medical Center.

Path to green card

A visa waiver programme was set up in 1994 to address the shortage by offering foreign-born doctors on J-1 student visas an easy path to a permanent residency - if they agree to work in an under-served area for three years.

Continue reading the main story

Foreign-born doctors in the US

• India: 40,000
• Philippines: 12,800
• China: 9,600
• Canada: 8,200
• North and South Korea: 7,900
• Pakistan: 7,900

Source: American Community Survey, 2009

"I would never even have considered West Virginia when I was training back in New Jersey," says Dr Ziad Salem, who has been working in Logan for more than five years.

Born in Beirut, Dr Salem grew up in Paris and went to medical school in Los Angeles. A job in a rural area was the only chance to stay in the US, but Logan was not his only option.

Hospitals and state agencies have to compete to get the best foreign-born doctors to their part of the country.

Logan Regional recruits them through its corporate office in Tennessee, and by using professional recruiters scouring hospital residency programmes nationwide.

The specialist areas that most of the foreign-born physicians were trained in makes them an invaluable asset to hospital and community alike.

Logan County lies in the southern part of West Virginia

"We have a pulmonologist on a J-1 because we didn't find an American. That is life-saving treatment right there," says John Walker, CEO of Logan Regional.

Each state is allowed to fill 30 slots every year under the visa waiver programme. West Virginia was able to fill 19 of them in 2011.

"We try to speak to them and let them know that the state is beautiful and great to raise a family. It's economically safe and has a low crime rate," says Monique Witten Mahone, J-1 visa waiver co-ordinator for the Division of Rural Health and Recruitment.

Rare species

It's a marketing campaign to a highly skilled and needed workforce that might have never heard about the area and feels slightly out of place.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Many of my patients were very grateful that I didn't look like a hometown boy.”

Abraham Verghese Former physician in Tenessee

"When I first decided to go to West Virginia there was a little bit of an anxiety," says Dr David Afram, who was born in Syria and did his residency in Washington, DC.

"I mean this is not New York, New Jersey, or Detroit. It's probably not an area that is used to foreign-born people or accents and even minorities like African-Americans or Hispanics are extremely rare in the state."

Only 1.3% of the population in West Virginia is foreign-born, one of the US's lowest levels, but a third of its doctors was born abroad, according to Census data. People have grown accustomed to hearing foreign accents in the doctor's office.

"This area... needed a gastroenterologist. [People] actually respect the fact that we are here," says Salem.

When Dr Abraham Verghese worked in rural Tennessee in the 1980s caring for Aids patients, he found that his foreign looks were a welcome sight in a small community where everyone knew each other.

"Many of my patients were very grateful that I didn't look like a hometown boy and that I had no reason to judge them," says Dr Verghese.

Potential abuse

The median household income in Logan County was $34,596 (£22,060) according to Census 2010 data

The physicians' visa very much depends on them staying employed at the hospital that sponsored them from the start, which in some instances has resulted in abuse.

Dr Salem and Dr Afram say they feel very appreciated at Logan Regional, but each know of colleagues in other states that did not get the same treatment.

"It was very obvious," says Dr Afram of his friends' experiences. "You are here because you have to be here, because you have nowhere to go. In terms of the hours, in terms of the respect, in terms of the call schedule - it was sort of like a slave labour."

But word-of-mouth reputation is important for Logan's hospital to satisfy the never-ending demand for more doctors.

Both doctors received their green card recently and with it the freedom to leave Logan and practise anywhere in the US.

"You see the huge need and what you would have to leave behind if you actually left here," says Dr Salem.

"I finished my waiver requirement, I even got my green card recently, and I still have signed a contract for another two years because I grew accustomed to the people and to the place. I'm still here."

Source

Viewpoint: Religious freedom is not tolerance

By Michael Goldfarb Journalist and broadcaster

Here's an essay question, students: Religious freedom and religious tolerance are not the same thing, or are they? Discuss.

The reason for asking the question today is obvious. The plan to build Park 51, a Muslim community centre a few blocks north of Ground Zero in New York City, has re-kindled resentment smoldering since 9/11 against the Muslim community in a significant portion of American society.

Two-thirds of those questioned for a New York Times poll said a mosque should not be built at the site

Toleration seems to be in short supply, with reports of several mosques being vandalised around America and a Muslim cab driver in New York being knifed because of his religion.

In a poll of New York City residents for the New York Times, published on 27 August, 72% of those interviewed told pollsters people have the right to build a house of worship near Ground Zero.

No surprise there, that's what religious freedom means.

But when asked, "Do people have the right to build a mosque and Islamic community center near ground zero?" the number dropped to 62% saying OK.

Finally, when asked should the Park 51 mosque and community centre actually be built at the proposed site, 67% said No.

The question raised by the poll is, people have religious freedom but where did the toleration go?

Endurance

In an editorial, the Times' expressed dismay and concluded: "The mosque should be built in Lower Manhattan because moving it would compromise American values."

Where do those values of religious tolerance come from? Are they uniquely American? Here's a bit of history.

John Locke: Anyone who is honest, peaceable and industrious, is OK

The word tolerance applied to religion was one of the foundations of the Enlightenment. Back in the 17th Century, after 300 years of murder, torture, war and general mayhem committed by Catholics and Protestants, some thinkers began to consider a better way for humanity.

Religion and politics had become too intertwined. It was time to uncouple them.

The English political philosopher, John Locke, living in exile in Amsterdam - having fallen foul of religious/political intrigues back home - wrote a Letter Concerning Toleration which was published in 1689.

In it, he wrote: "Neither Pagan nor Mahometan, nor Jew, ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion... The Gospel commands no such thing... and the commonwealth which embraces indifferently all men that are honest, peaceable, and industrious, requires it not."

Now, before we get all misty-eyed and think Locke's essay is the 17th Century version of children holding hands and singing "We Are the World" you have to understand that "toleration" as it was used by Enlightenment philosophers comes from the Latin word tolerare meaning "to endure".

It is closer in meaning to the phrase "high pain tolerance" rather than something noble and generous. We endure our minorities for the better functioning of the commonwealth.

The French model

Over the century following publication of Locke's letter, the word migrated into European political discourse.

No US government will ban the full Muslim veil in public buildings, as France has

Giving religious minorities their rights became important to creating modern states.

"Toleration" meant permission given by the authorities for minorities to have certain rights guaranteed. For example, Toleration Letters from various rulers gave Jews the right to live outside the ghettos into which they had been segregated for almost 500 years.

It was this understanding of religious toleration that the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the language on religious freedom that appears in the first amendment of the American Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

The same understanding of tolerance was used just after the fall of the Bastille, when the French National Assembly wrote a new constitution for France that included, for the first time in European history, a guarantee of full citizens' rights for its Protestant and Jewish minority.

But with those civil rights came an expectation from the majority. Jews would have to become French.

They would have to stop wearing their traditional clothes and be educated in French schools. Their Rabbis would have to become fluent in French. Legal precedents were set to make sure this happened.

These same precedents are the basis of the French National Assembly's decision this summer to ban the full Muslim veil in public places.

The American definition of liberty means the government would not take the same position as the French government - although I suspect plenty of Americans would like to ban the hijab and the veil.

Empire

In the furor over Park 51, the more thinking members of the anti-mosque brigade have invoked French reasoning without using the word France, reminding the project's prime mover, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, that tolerated minorities have reciprocal responsibilities not to tread to heavily on the feelings of the majority.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Far too many insist on saying the US is a 'Christian' country without considering what that means for those of us who are Americans but not Christian”

End Quote

Where equality fits into their reasoning is not clear.

Curiously Britain, which had no 18th Century revolution and which still bans a Catholic from taking the throne, has had in these times of tensions between Muslims and their fellow citizens, fewer problems.

Despite the bombings of 7/7 and several subsequent near-miss plots, and although its Muslim population is primarily composed of immigrants from Pakistan, a country where radical Islam has a strong foothold, there seems to be, for want of a better word, tolerance.

Tensions simmer, make no mistake. Prominent national newspaper columnists turn the heat up with their talk of London-istan, and there were isolated riots in the north of England in 2001 - though these were more over economic issues rather than faith or religion.

In last May's election, the British National Party, which melds Islamophobia with a general anti-immigrant stance, actually lost seats on local councils.

First encounter

My theory as to why, when America is on the verge of exploding with intolerance towards Muslims, Britain seems to be coping, has less to do with political philosophy than a basic historical difference.

Through its empire, British society had several centuries of extensive contact with Muslims. People in Britain may have prejudice against Muslims but they don't have the same visceral intolerance that is often the first response when people encounter someone alien.

After World War II and the end of Empire any wave of immigration from the former colonies back to the "Mother Country" became news.

Muslim immigration, primarily from Pakistan but also Uganda, was no different. It was examined thoroughly in the press and in university social science departments.

Following the oil price shock of 1973, wealth flowed to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States and London became the preferred destination of the newly-wealthy citizens of those countries in summer and also in times of instability.

London's Central Mosque, in Regent's Park, was first mooted in the 1930s

Britons have had decades to get over their initial reactions to seeing men in starched thobes or dishdashas and women wearing the veil walking the streets of London.

Prior to 9/11, my guess is that most Americans didn't realise there were up to two million Muslims living in their country and they certainly didn't know or think much about Islam at all... just as they don't know or think much about the world outside the US.

So their first encounter with Islam has been through its most violent and radical adherents. That's not a good introduction.

But how does this answer the essay question I posed at the start of this piece?

Officially in Britain, there is an established church and an official inequality of religious freedom at the highest level, but tolerance seems to be thriving.

In America, the idea of religious freedom remains paramount, yet intolerance seems to be on the rise. Far too many insist on saying the US is a "Christian" country without considering what that means for those of us who are Americans but not Christian.

The answer I offer is that religious freedom needs to be guaranteed by law - as it is in the American Constitution - because religious tolerance is variable, something we cannot rely on our fellow citizens to practise as a matter of course.

Source

Protests across US over Arizona immigration law

Thousands of people have been protesting in Los Angeles

Tens of thousands of people have joined protests in the US against a controversial anti-immigration law introduced in Arizona.

The biggest protest took place in Los Angeles, but others were planned in more than 70 cities across the country.

The law requires local police to question anyone they suspect of being in the United States illegally.

The protesters say the law could lead to Hispanics being targeted, and inflame racial tensions.

In Los Angeles, police estimated 100,000 people had joined a march led by singer Gloria Estefan.

"It's the right of every American to protect where they live," she told the crowd.

"But that doesn't give them a reason to place a law that could create racism and discrimination."

The BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani, at the rally, says there were banners calling for a boycott of Arizona, and even one portraying the state's governor, Jan Brewer, as Hitler.

Many of the protesters waved the US flag, while some carried slogans appealing for US President Barack Obama to intervene.

The law was signed earlier this month by Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer, who said it "protects every American citizen".

Under the new rules, those unable to show that they are legally allowed in the US could be given six-month jail sentences and fined $2,500 (about £1,600).

Supporters of the bill say it will help bring illegal immigration under control in Arizona - a state which is the main entry point for undocumented immigrants into the US.

The state is home to an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants.

Source

Secret world of Vietnamese workers in Russia

By Hung Nguyen BBC Vietnamese, Moscow

Vietnamese migrants work up to 20 hours a day in this Russian factory

Three years ago, Cuong left his wife and two children in Vietnam and went to Russia in search of a job.

The young man from Hai Duong province thought he could make a good living as a garment factory worker.

Like many other Vietnamese illegal workers, he even changed his name - Cuong is an assumed identity - in order to avoid being detected and thrown out of the former communist state.

Vietnam has a rapidly growing economy, but many people still go and work in Russia, whose ties with the South East Asian nation date back to the Cold War era.

Cuong is one of thousands of Vietnamese who have left the heat of the countryside for the Russian cold to become "ghost workers" - people who are employed in factories that are not registered and do not pay taxes.

Now, three years after arriving, Cuong's dream of making lots of money has become a nightmare.

It all started when he could not find work in Moscow, so had to travel to Tula 200km (125 miles) away to find a job.

Cuong says from there everything went downhill.

Bad conditions

"I had to work 20 hours a day to make just over $30 (£19)," he says.

Despite working day and night, Cuong soon ended up in financial trouble because he could not earn enough money to make ends meet.

"Within a few months I was in the red by more than $165."

He says his passport was confiscated by the owner and foreman to prevent him and other workers from leaving.

Eventually Cuong managed to escape and found another job in a Russian construction company.

I am lucky to have a good employer. Work is hard but I made enough to make it worthwhile Thanh Ghost worker in Russia

Just as things began to pick up the owner of the firm withheld several months of his salary for no reason.

Today Cuong is worse off than when he first arrived.

He is desperate to go back to Vietnam because his mother has been diagnosed with cancer and his wife is raising their two daughters without any help from him.

Legal issues

Under Russian law migrant workers like Cuong and the companies they work for do not actually exist.

Critics say this means employees can easily be exploited.

Some factory owners told me they survive by paying bribes to rogue Russian police, tax officials and people in charge of overseeing foreign visitors.

Working in these invisible factories is very risky because it is illegal and as some workers told me, they over-stay their visas and live in constant fear of being deported.

Russian law bars deportees from returning for five years. But people have found ways around the system.

Some workers explained that with a certain amount of money, they bought new passports with new names to come back and earn more dollars.

Some Vietnamese told me, that despite the dangers, they have made money that they would not dream of earning back home.

Opportunities

Thanh, a young woman, comes from the same province as Cuong. She returned to Moscow for the second time in 2006.

She admits that there are many pitfalls, but has absolutely no regrets.

Workers clean a van as they prepare to go on a rare shopping trip

"I am lucky to have a good employer. Work is hard but I make enough to make it worthwhile."

Thanh works 12-14 hours a day in a "ghost" factory just outside Moscow and earns $700-800 a month.

She does not spend any money on rent because she sleeps at the factory for free.

Thanh fell in love with a Vietnamese man in the same factory.

They went home to get married and returned to Russia under the names they have now.

She is now seven months pregnant, but her bump is still tiny - she says the long work hours have probably taken their toll on the baby's development.

The couple have already decided to return to Vietnam for the baby's birth.

They say they are prepared to take the risk because it is too expensive to deliver the child in Moscow.

Once the baby is born they will go back to Russia with their new baby and new names.

However some, like Cuong, cannot wait to get out of Russia.

He obtained a document from the Vietnamese embassy in Moscow which will allow him to travel back home - a new passport is too costly.

His hopes of making a living have been well and truly dashed and now he just wants to be with his family in Vietnam.

The only problem is he is stranded in Russia because he does not have the plane fare to go home, and he cannot leave until his family sends the money for the flight.

Source

Big rise in Afghan child migrants

Big rise in Afghan child migrants

By Martin Patience
BBC News, Kabul

As a 15-year-old, Aman Ahmedi set off on a journey for a better future - but it was to cost him his family.

His parents paid for Aman and his younger brother, Qais, who was 14 at the time, to be illegally trafficked to the UK.

Former child immigrant to UK on why he wants to return

They travelled through central Asia in vehicles and on foot before reaching Moscow.

From there, they travelled through Europe, eventually making it to France. The two boys were then loaded onto shipping containers and, finally, made it to Britain.

"My parents sent us because they wanted us to have a good life, a good future and to have a chance of getting a decent education," said Aman.

"That's why they spent a lot of money on sending us to the UK."

Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world, where opportunities are hard to come by, unemployment is high, and an insurgency rages in many areas.

Many Afghans see Britain as place of work and plenty - a country where a better life beckons.

Trade in human cargo

With the former ties of Empire and the international language of English, reaching London is an aspiration for many.

Every year, thousands of children attempt to make it to the UK.

An Afghan child trafficker admits many do not make it to Europe

United Nations aid agencies are warning of a sharp increase in unaccompanied Afghan children applying for asylum across Europe.

The trade in human cargo is a multi-million-pound industry kept hidden in the shadows.

In a rare interview, we met one trafficker who makes journeys like Aman's possible.

Yassin, who did not want to be identified, said it was a business full of hardship, danger and sometimes death.

He told me that people are first taken into Iran and then smuggled into Turkey. From there they are trafficked to Europe. But some do not make it that far.

"In Turkey the police caught us and imprisoned us for a month. We were finally released and told to go back to Iran," Yassin told me.

"But in the mountains, the Kurds chased us and we tried to escape. They killed many of us.

"Of the 45 that set out, only 15 survived."

Football hopes

Yassin said that after witnessing what happened first-hand, he gave up his trade in trafficking.

Aman was luckier. He arrived in Britain in 2001.

When my parents sent us they said they would follow but I've no idea where they are Aman

He stayed and studied in Bournemouth at a local college for four years, along with his brother. Aman played football for a local football club competing in tournaments across the country.

He started supporting Manchester United and had hoped to become a professional footballer.

But Aman was deported from the UK in 2005 as an illegal immigrant. He is now 24 and lives unemployed in Kabul with distant relatives and says he is desperate to find work.

Aman believes his brother, Qais, is still in Bournemouth.

But as for his parents - and nine other brothers and sisters - he has not seen or heard from them in almost a decade.

"I've got no idea where my family is," he said. "When my parents sent us they said they would follow but I've no idea where they are - no idea."

They may be in the UK, where Aman says he longs to return to.

"I can't because I don't have any money. But... it would mean a new life to go back to England." He paused. "A new life."

Source

The first time Ahmed saw England was when he pulled back the tarpaulin of the lorry he had been smuggled onto, and jumped down onto the street in Luton.

Ahmed's story is typical of a growing number of young migrants

It was early 2009. He wasn't sure of the date and couldn't say exactly how long he had been on the road since leaving northern Afghanistan the year before.

All he knew was that it was still hot when he crossed into the Iranian desert during the first days of the journey, and freezing cold by the time he neared its end in northern Europe.

Along the way he had ducked under searchlights, taken part in a car chase, been stowed away on boats and picked up by the police, on a journey that migration experts say is typical for a growing number of Afghan children making their way, unaccompanied, to Europe.

They were experiences that might force a teenager from rural Afghanistan to grow up fast, but his first reaction on arrival was apparently childlike.

"It was very cold," he says, "there was snow everywhere. There were boys who were playing in the snow and one of them threw a snowball at me, so I joined in and for 10 or 15 minutes. I played."

'Threatened'

Ahmed, who says he is now 16, made his journey alone.

He says he left Faryab province in northern Afghanistan after militants asked him to plant explosives on cars that local officials brought to the garage where he worked, and threatened to kill him when he refused.

Until then he had been untroubled by the violence plaguing many parts of his country, but the security situation was deteriorating and his family felt they had to leave.

Ahmed, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, says he was refused asylum but given leave to stay in the UK - a status commonly granted to unaccompanied minors, or under-18s.

His stated reasons for leaving have not been verified, but he gave the BBC an exhaustive account of his journey.

It was an uncle who arranged the trip, which migrants say can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Ahmed said he was not initially told he was being sent to England - nor that he would be separated from his family. That moment came after a couple of days of driving when, as he later realised, he had just crossed into Iran.

"They were putting everyone in cars, they were in a hurry and talking in a foreign language I didn't understand," he says.

"I wanted to be with my family at that stage but two people forced me into one of the vehicles. I was crying, I didn't want to go. We didn't get to say goodbye."

Iran to Istanbul

Several days of continuous driving followed, initially in the open back of a truck.

"There were 25 people in the back of the pick-up, with some of them piled on top of each other or hanging from the rails," he says.

"The weather was so hot that some fainted. There was no cold water to drink and they didn't even stop when people needed to relieve themselves."

If you get to Finland then you get to stay - if you get to Greece, then you have no chance EU's 'asylum lottery'

The group, which included Afghan men of various ages from different parts of the country, crossed into Turkey, but only after being ordered by smugglers to drop to the ground to avoid a swivelling searchlight at a border post.

The journey then proceeded at a less frenetic pace, with trips in cars and buses and a comfortable stay in Istanbul with an Afghan intermediary - who, like Ahmed, was from the Uzbek speaking part of the country.

It was there that Ahmed says he heard for the first time that he was headed for England, and was told that there were two options for travelling on to Greece - by sea or by land.

Afraid of the sea, which he had only seen for the first time in Istanbul, he chose land.

Dinghy crossing

He might have regretted it. Approaching the border by car with two other migrant teenagers, the Afghan intermediary, who was driving, had to swerve off the road into fields to avoid a checkpoint where vehicles were being searched, and was chased for a while by a police car.

And there was still water to cross at the border. The group of four used a pair of inflatable dinghies, though the one Ahmed was in capsized when his companion tried to throw his rucksack onto the far bank.

Ahmed currently has discretionary leave to stay in Britain

Drama gave way to boredom in Greece, with several months of waiting while the next leg of the journey was arranged. Time was wiled away playing computer games in a flat. Ahmed never learned the name of the city.

Then came one of the biggest tests, as he travelled to Italy by boat, stowed away in a tool compartment in the base of a car-transporting lorry for about 15 hours.

"There were two of us squeezed in tight," he says. "It was very cold - so cold that our backs felt like they were frozen. We were not even able to reach for our bags to get something to eat."

Calais 'jungle'

There were more cold temperatures to bear as he travelled north through Italy, where he spent several nights sleeping rough outside a large station - probably Milan.

Eventually sneaking onto a train to France, he was so exhausted that he slept, only waking as he was carried off by police in Paris and deposited on a station bench.

From the French capital, he managed to call the intermediary in Greece, who put him in touch with another Afghan in the smuggling network, this time in the northern port of Calais.

Every time [the French authorities] caught people they just bought them back to 'the jungle'

There he stayed in "the jungle", the notorious informal migrant camp that French authorities closed down in September.

At one point, after being stung during a police raid by what he suggested might have been tear gas, local authorities sent him to a French carer family.

But he escaped, determined not to be frustrated so close to his goal.

There were two failed attempts to get passage across the channel. Once, French police scanners detected him in the back of a container. Another time, he clung to the undercarriage of a lorry, but it drove for two hours in the wrong direction.

Both times, French officials simply sent him back to the Calais camp.

It may be that he has thick-padded boxing gloves to thank for crossing to England on his third attempt. He noticed them among the sports equipment that he and a group of others were told to burrow into to avoid detection.

Four were caught by scanners and dogs at the French border controls, and two more at the English ones.

"The lorry boarded the ship, which after a while arrived in port," Ahmed says. Once it was moving again I came out from my hiding place, thinking I was the only one left. But there were four others with me, still hiding under the goods."

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When an asylum seeker fleeing the world's deadliest conflict zones arrives in Europe, their chances of being granted refugee status differ drastically from country to country.

Migrants often seek temporary shelter before moving on

With the European Union struggling to unify it policies across member states, this uneven approach has hampered efforts to deal fairly and efficiently with applicants, experts say.

"It's what we refer to as the asylum lottery," says Bjarte Vandvik, secretary general of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.

"If you get to Finland then you get to stay. If you get to Greece, then you have no chance."

The overall number of asylum requests in the EU has dropped sharply since the early 1990s. But conflicts such as those in Afghanistan and Somalia still drive up numbers from certain countries.

One particularly vulnerable group affected by uneven policies in the EU is that of unaccompanied Afghan children, whose numbers have risen sharply over the past two years.

Campaigners from human rights and refugee agencies acknowledge that not all of these children should be granted asylum in the EU.

Some may have fled for economic reasons, or may have invented or embellished their story - often at the suggestion of smugglers.

But the campaigners also say Afghans do tend to be fleeing situations of generalised violence, misrule or abuse, and that under the current system they are not being given a fair hearing.

"We have a lot of children coming from extremely volatile situations to Europe who are not always being treated as what they are, and that's children on their own in a foreign country without any safeguards," says Mr Vandvik.

"That should be the focus for how European governments, individually and collectively, approach this."

The EU says it is working to correct this, and an action plan on unaccompanied minors is expected under the current, Spanish EU presidency.

Tobias Billstrom, Sweden's minister for migration and asylum policy, says that under the Swedish presidency in the second half of 2009 the bloc built on earlier efforts to forge a common migration and asylum policy.

"If we look at the differences five years ago or 10 years ago, there has been clear progress," he told the BBC.

'Irrational' movements

One practice that differs from country to country is age determination for young migrants. This is needed because under-18s are given certain automatic protections under national and international laws.

Because of this obligation to protect, it is in the interests of countries wanting to limit migrant numbers to be able to prove the age of those who are 18 or over.

But there are no agreed, accurate methods for doing so. Asylum requests may be turned down because the applicant is suspected of lying about his age, even though this cannot be proved.

Other concerns over child migrants include their detention, the lack of common procedures for assigning a guardian, and a growing emphasis on returning children to their country of origin.

ASYLUM RECOGNITION RATES, 2008 (FIRST INSTANCE) Finland: 95%Netherlands: 52% Sweden: 49% UK: 30% France: 16% Greece: less than 1% Source:Eurostat

Greece, which is the first point of entry into the EU for many migrants, has been accused of widespread abuses, including secretly sending some children back across the border to Turkey.

With Greece's recognition rate for asylum cases close to zero, most try to move on quickly to other states.

But they may later be sent back under EU rules, which try to prevent "asylum shopping" by allowing adult applicants to be returned to the country through which they first entered the EU, and children to be returned to the first state in which they made an application.

Simone Troller, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that because of Greece's record some EU countries have decided to stop sending minors back there - though others, including the UK, have continued to do so.

Like some other observers, she rejected the idea that the minors target certain destinations from the start of their journeys, drawn in by a high level of protection.

"When I asked the question, 'where is the best place to go', I was asked the question back," she said of her interviews with Afghan children.

"Sometimes they move in an irrational way - I didn't get the impression that they were very clear about what the benefits were."

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Girl chooses Japan over parents

Noriko Calderon and her parents fought - and lost - a long legal battle

A teenager in Japan whose parents are being deported to the Philippines has decided to stay in Tokyo with her aunt.

After the family lost a three-year battle to remain in Japan, Noriko Calderon, 13, had to choose whether to stay in Japan or go with her parents.

She said an emotional goodbye to them at Tokyo's main airport.

Filipinos Arlan and Sarah Calderon used fake passports to enter Japan in the early 1990s, and their daughter was born and raised in the country.

Immigration officials arrested Mrs Calderon in 2006, and since then the family has been fighting to stay together.

Emotional decision

The Calderons fought a three-year legal battle to remain in Japan, saying that Arlan had a stable job there and their daughter only spoke Japanese.

But the family lost their case in the High Court in February, and Noriko was then faced with a difficult choice.

"Japan is my homeland," Noriko told CNN when asked why she decided to stay behind when her parents were deported.

Her parents say her life will be better in Japan than the poor farming community where they will be living in the Philippines.

But Arlan Calderon told CNN: "We won't be there when she needs us the most... She has to protect herself on her own. I'm sorry about that."

Activists claim that Japan's rigid immigration laws violate human rights.

Under Japanese law, the Calderons will not be allowed back into the country for five years.

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Immigration: Let's Get Over It Already

Author Kurt Andersen's new book, Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America, examines the economic, political and cultural opportunities to be found in the wake of the financial crises. In this excerpt, the fourth of five pieces to appear on TIME.com, he argues that open borders and innovative immigration policy are critical to America's rebound.

No other nation on earth assimilates immigrants as successfully as the United States. There are those who argue that we can no longer afford to open our doors so wide, but in fact precisely the opposite is true. Beyond giving sentimental, self-flattering lip service to our history as "a nation of immigrants," the sooner we can agree on a coherent and correctly self-serving national immigration policy — that is, to encourage and enable as many as possible of the world's smartest and most ambitious and open-minded people to become Americans — the better our chances of forestalling national decline.

I recently asked a friend of mine who operates a large farming business in California how many of his hundreds of employees are undocumented Mexican immigrants. Ninety percent, he told me. I literally gasped. And such numbers are not unique to agriculture or to California. Just as we are now dependent on cheap credit and cheap manufactured goods from China, we really can't afford to say no to cheap laborers from Mexico and Central America, and we need to admit that truth and make the system for absorbing them rational. At the upper end of the scale, it's crazily self-defeating for us to set arbitrary and entirely politicized limits on the visas we grant to skilled foreign workers, such as software engineers and nurses. Wouldn't it make more sense to establish a politically independent federal apparatus, like the Federal Reserve System, that would adjust immigration quotas according to the actual and projected ebbs and flows of our economy? The waves of exotic foreigners who poured in during the 1800s and early 1900s were unsettling to Americans at the time — culturally, economically, and politically. But our forebears got over it, fortunately, since the newcomers were instrumental in forging the American Century.

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