Cheri lost her partner in Africa - now she’s come to find him in Ireland
A Ugandan mother of three believes that her partner – with whom she lost contact when she fled Africa for asylum abroad – may be somewhere in Ireland.
Cheri Kristina left Uganda in 2000, due to alleged tribal conflicts making it unsafe for her to stay. She first applied for asylum in Botswana, where she met Kabera John Bihirabagabo, and bore him a son, named Timothy.
Kristina told Metro Éireann: “We were both seeking asylum there. He was staying outside of the camp where I was accommodated, so I used not to see him too much.”
The Ugandan woman claims they were separated when tribal differences in the Botswana camp impelled her to seek refuge abroad.
“The last time I saw Kabera was when I was pregnant with Timothy,” she recalls. “We were in a city called Francistown. We first met there, but we couldn’t see too much of each other because of all the problems he had with tribal conflicts.”
Making her way to Europe, she claimed asylum in Scotland where she spent two years before her claim was turned down.
“They refused my application, my case was finished,” she says. “I knew that they could take me any time, which would make it hard for me to find Kabera from wherever they might send me, so I decided to come here.”
Now based at the Hatch Hall accommodation centre in central Dublin, Kristina says she has been given new hope by a phone call to a friend in Botswana.
“I think [Kabera] might be in Ireland because somebody told me he is here. It was someone, I can’t say the name, in Botswana.”
Asked why she thought this person’s information could be relied upon, she responded: “He’s not in Botswana. It was in December of last year that I had this phone call. This person told me someone had been talking on the phone to Kabera, and that Kabera had told him he was in Ireland.
“I have been to the Red Cross. They promised me they would try to find him, but that it might take some time.”
She added: “I miss him very much... and it’s really hard for me to look after these three kids by myself.”
