Nadifa
Nadifa fled her home in Somalia ten years ago due to the ongoing conflict. She wanted to go directly to the UK, where her children were already living. She did not want to take the risk of travelling irregularly across two continents and therefore applied for a visa.
However, her application was repeatedly refused. Faced with no other option, Nadifa then set off to Sudan, from where she crossed the Sahara desert overnight into Libya.
"It was so difficult but that is the Sahara, is so big, you can't imagine what is the difficulties there, it's so dry... how many people died... during my journey not one died but on the way, you saw, on the way the people died on the floor, there are bones...."
From Libya she took a small boat to Italy with 15 other people, then travelled up through Europe to the Netherlands, where she was able to get a boat to the UK. She was returned to the Netherlands by the UK authorities but made another attempt to join her family, trapped in a lorry inside a small, overcrowded boat. Bad weather made the crossing impossible and the boat was stuck in the dock for five days.
"It was Sunday night, they told me tomorrow morning you get to UK 8 o'clock but... because it was windy we stayed there. Sunday there, Monday, Tuesday... inside the lorry, we don't have water, we don't have nothing inside and we feel scared that when you go out you can't come inside the lorry".
She made it to the UK after five days. It took Nadifa two years and $2,000 to reach safety.
(Source: British Refugee Council)