She was travelling from Tanzania to London, accompanied by a white man she met in the city of Dar es Salaam. He had paid her ticket and promised her work. But during a stop at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport he disappeared without trace. 22-year-old Faith found herself alone. The Dutch military police promised to help her.

Faith* grew up in a village in Uganda, raised by her father. Her mother died when she was three. She has no brothers or sisters. She was 17, still a schoolgirl when her father died. Villagers took care of Faith and decided she should marry.

Rebel camp
Faith’s husband took her with him to East Congo. He turned out to be a member of the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces), a rebel group partly based in the border region with Uganda. His father was a commander of one of the camps.

Conditions were bad. Food was scarce and the camp dwellers were continually exposed to the heat, rain, cold and dust. Faith wanted to leave but her husband warned her that it would mean her death. When a man and a woman who tried to escape were killed before her very eyes, Faith realised this was not an empty threat. Against her will, she spent three years in the rebel camp.

Suitcase
At the start of 2010, Faith’s husband died during a mission. Since she had no real contact with anyone else in the camp, her desire to escape grew more urgent. Then she was ordered to accompany the rebels to Uganda.

She had no idea what was expected of her. At the border she was ordered to go on ahead with a suitcase that one of the rebels had handed her. She crossed the border without any problem, but was arrested soon afterwards. The suitcase turned out to be full of explosives.

Dead bodies
Faith ended up in a prison cell. The police treated her as a rebel and subjected her to daily interrogations. The policemen beat and kicked her. One week after her arrest, the rapes began.

The torture continued for two months. Then it all became too much for Faith. During one interrogation, she lost consciousness and awoke to find herself in a marsh surrounded by dead bodies. Dressed only in a long skirt which she pulled up to cover her breasts, Faith began to walk. Hours later she met an old woman working in the fields.

Asylum seeker
Shocked by Faith’s condition, the woman decided to help her. She offered Faith shelter and urged her to leave Uganda as soon as possible. If the soldiers were to find out she had survived, her life would be in danger.

Faith eventually ended up in Ter Apel, a centre for asylum seekers in the north of the Netherlands. There, she was told that she had to leave the Netherlands. The immigration authorities did not believe her story about the rebels and her arrest.

President
Faith was advised to take the train to Belgium or Germany, but with no money for the journey she began to spend her nights at the station. A Surinamese woman who worked at the station put her in touch with an organisation that helps people in Faith’s position. She has been living there since October.

“There is never a day when I feel good,” says Faith with difficulty. “I am always thinking about my problems. I can’t go back to Uganda because they think I’m a rebel. But I can’t stay in the Netherlands either. I am no longer worth anything.” Crying she adds, “I miss my father terribly.”

Sobbing, Faith makes a final appeal: “I would like to explain to the president of the Netherlands that I cannot go back. I have no one left and only he can help me.”

*This young woman’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

(dd/imm)