The “Dust king”
“Dust in the wind is more than a line from a song – it’s my existential condition.
Being an asylum seeker is like being a ghost.
Because I escaped from Eritrea, a place best described as “The North Korea of Africa” I have permission to stay in Israel until it will be safe to go back but in the meantime I have no status or legal rights to live as a Human being.
I’m like the Dust King from behind.
With one wipe I can be disappeared. I can be arrested for a couple of months, released and than arrested again or I can be deported to a third country with a “one way ticket” to Hell.
I’m supposed to be happy that I’m still alive after the ordeal I went through in the past few years, so the grin from the Dust King is a good description of my Life in this place.
The only thing that keeps me going is the thought of my son and wife back home. I miss them and I hope I can reunite with them safely someday.
One last thing, There is a global immigration problem where millions of people are escaping from an inferno to a safe heaven. Every country has the right to choose their own immigration policy but I expected much more from the State of Israel.
70 years ago the Jewish people where themselves refugees escaping from Europe. Do you have such a short memory?”