An educated Iraqi, an English-speaking veterinary surgeon who asked to be called Omar, arrived on the coast of Italy this summer after 30 hours drifting at sea.
In a small backpack, which was all he carried on the overcrowded rubber dinghy, was a computer memory stick containing copies of his passport, diplomas and letters.
Those documents, upon which his future depended, portray an often unnoticed group of migrants trying to get into Europe: The professional people who move by any desperate means from one unwelcome way station to another.
"They are honest people, they are professionals, they respect the rules, they felt so embarrassed, so sorry they had done something illegal," Laura Boldrini, one of the officials from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees who interviewed the new arrival.
Boldrini was speaking of the veterinary surgeon and a 26-year-old Iraqi engineer with whom he made the crossing, who asked to be called Said.
clipped from: www.iht.com