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Africans Flee to South America on Dangerous Journey to US

Associated Press

   PORTLAND, MAINE - Hundreds of Africans have joined Central American
   migrants on the long, dangerous journey to seek asylum in the U.S.

   One man says he fled his village in the Democratic Republic of Congo
   when an armed conflict killed hundreds of people, including some of his
   relatives. On the trip to the United States, Blaise Matshieba and his
   family first went to South America and passed through eight countries.

   As they traveled north, they slept along roads or in the jungle. They
   got sick and nearly starved. They encountered bodies. Now they are safe
   in Portland, Maine.

   Matshieba says he chose the route after seeing accounts of Europe-bound
   immigrants being turned away, of drownings in the Mediterranean Sea and
   of racism.

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