Sierra Leone / British journalist, Sorious Samura becomes an illegal immigrant traveling from Morocco to Europe with a group of African migrants. Three of the men decide to make the crossing by swimming to the European enclave of Ceuta in Morocco – one makes it three are caught. The journey is horrendous and desperate and can take up to 4 / 5 years. At first there is a sense of commradre between the men (there are no women in the film) as they struggle for a life of selling battery’s, flowers and DVDs and living in make shift dormitories. But by the time Samura gets to France and realises he has been conned by the smuggler anger takes over. Many of the men admit to begging which is something I never saw in my life in southern Spain so maybe this is something new or something which happens in northern Spain, France.

Samura makes the point that it is the illegal people who contribute to the economy. The ones who oil the wheels which keeps Europe turning, doing those jobs Europeans wont do and nothing will stop them from coming. At the same time the British government is very happy to encourage the immigration of skilled workers from Africa, draining the continent of it’s professionals.

This is a soulless lonely journey – as they reach Calais there are thousands of men and women from across the world all desperate to make the final crossing to Britain by having to negotiate border police, more smugglers and the forest. I hope, like Arick from Sudan who is on his third trip, they all make it to Dreamland – one day!

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I am not sure about the ethics involved in making this film or how truthful the experiences of British journalist Sorious Samura are, but “Living with Illegals,” his 50 minute documentary (made for British television) is depressing viewing. To investigate undocumented migration from Africa to the European Union, Samura (who is originally from Sierra Leone and made films about the civil war there) decides to become an undocumented migrant.

 He freely mixes with migrants in Morocco, Spain, France and the UK (the final destination for most of them) and puts his life at risk: He sleeps rough, begs, trusts smugglers, and hides in trucks to cross borders.  Samura is definitely pro-immigration. And after a while you root for these men. (He does not interview women migrants although you see some women migrants once in the film.)  In the end, you root for the migrants.At times he can’t get his head around why these migrants risk their lives for menial jobs and loneliness.  One tells him: “I am ready to do any kind of job. If I have to I’ll wash the toilets, bathrooms or train stations and I’ll be very happy. Forget I am a graduate.”

Later a Sudanese migrant who has been deported three times from the UK and who Samura grows close to, tells the filmmaker: “I have no choice. What do you prefer? To stay illegally or to die?”