Asylum: a rare happy ending

Civilians flee civil war in Sierra Leone

Who would be a refugee?

You escape war, famine or torture... and when you arrive in your Promised Land, people accuse you of being 'bogus'.

And then you hear on the radio about plans to lock you up in a detention centre.

But here's a heart-warming story that might help to improve empathy with asylum seekers.

It's about Alpha and Fatmata Bah, from Sierra Leone, and their two small daughters, Marian and Sordoh.

Secret police

Alpha Bah was a photographer in Sierra Leone. In 1997, the military junta tried to recruit him as a secret police informer against his own tribe.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I started asking myself, is this a coincidence or a reality?

Alpha Bah

He wouldn't do that. So he had to escape... and leave his two little girls and their mother Fatmata behind.

Two years later, he returned - and searched for them in refugee camps. Unsuccessfully. When the rebels returned in 1999, Alpha had to flee for his life.

He ended up in Britain in March this year. He was 'dispersed' to Cardiff... where he began working as a translator.

Phone call

One Thursday, he received a phone call, which began a story with the happy ending he hadn't ever dared even imagine. The caller wanted Alpha to help with fellow refugees.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing when he told me the names of the girls and my fiancée. I couldn't believe my ears. I started asking myself, am I asleep or what? Is this a coincidence or a reality?"

He went on to describe their first conversation.

"When she called me, I asked her name. I said 'Did you know anybody by the name of Alpha Bah of Freetown?' She said, 'Why are you asking me?"'

Cardiff - where Alpha was reunited with his family

At that point her money ran out for the phone box. Alpha managed to get through again, but not until the next day:

"I called her and I burst out the secret. She said 'No. That couldn't happen'. She started to cry.

"I said: 'Don't cry - this is not a time for that. I missed you for a long time. I never thought I'd see you again.'"

After that phone call, even though they were just three hours away from each other down a motorway, immigration bureaucracy and lack of funds meant it was another ten days before they were re-united - at Cardiff coach station.

Flowers

"I knew they would be coming on a coach. I went to the town to buy some flowers and gifts.

"When the coach arrived, I was looking everywhere and I looked over the window and I saw them and they burst into tears. One of the happiest things for me was to see them all okay."

He'd last seen his daughter

I said: 'Don't cry - this is not a time for that. I missed you for a long time. I never thought I'd see you again'

Alpha Bah

Marian when she was a few months old, and Sordoh when she was three. She's now nearly seven, and recognised her father instantly.

Alpha has been given exceptional leave to remain in the United Kingdom. But his family hasn't yet.

I asked him what impression the British election campaign had made on him since he arrived here two months ago.

"If you take people who've been politically persecuted in their country or people who are running away for their lives and you put them into prisons, it's simply saying 'why didn't you stay in your country and die there in silence?'

"And for me that is not human."