HISTORY
A BRIEF HISTORY
The Years We have Been Nowhere collects stories, by interviewing people, both in Europe and Africa, in accordance with the purpose to reach as many witnesses as possible. All the stories trace back the paths made by the deportees, since they took the decision to leave, to their return to the land of origin, once they are back home and they’re pointed at as losers. Different stories, different people, different target countries and different reasons why they have been sent back to their country.
As a documentary with a tendency to focus on social issues and subcultures, through the scenes, it highlights the various complexities of identity, belonging and adaptation in relation to the deportee community of Sierra Leone.
Through the stories the documentary goes finding a clear and not always tangible boundary line, by unveiling a world of pain and anguish.
Sierra Leone experiences people deported who go through social dilemma including families torn apart financial burden; children developing behavioral problems, low respect in society.
The stories illustrate how certain policy initiatives, existing laws or lack thereof, are responsible for creating conditions that may lead to violations of human rights, suffering and injustice.
As western countries seem to aim for a progress of so-called “burden-sharing” politics the reality is revealing hundreds of thousands of deportees increasingly feeling the squeeze.
The unfold stories depict cases of violence, humiliation and abuse of power in the deportation process, as well as the more subtle but equally devastating act of separating families through detention and deportation.
As governments around the world try to reduce the migrant flows, they are often putting pressure on them to leave, whether they’re ready or not, while in developing countries, which shelter the vast majority of the world’s refugees, the way Western politics do handle the problem, may be inconsistent.
