Because I was a child criminal…

If I had been caught by the police as an adult criminal,
After serving my sentence in a prison, I would have lived in my country.
But I was caught by the police as a child criminal.
My crime was being poor.
I served my sentence in an overcrowded maximum security prison for children, called orphanage.
And I was expelled from my country as if I had been a foreign criminal.

If I had been caught by the police as an adult criminal,
After serving my sentence in a prison, I would have lived in my country.
But I was caught by the police as a child criminal.
My crime was being a lost child.
I was locked up in a maximum security prison for children, where we were daily beaten and punished in various humiliating ways.
I was transferred to a golden prison for children where I had my mugshot taken.
Then I was exported to a foreign country.

If I had been caught by the police as an adult for a heinous crime that would have gotten death penalty,
I could have died in my native land.
But I was caught by the police as a child criminal.
My crime was to be a motherless child, rejected, lost and timid, who believed everything adults said to her and obeyed without questioning them.
My sentence was for life, to be served and to die in a foreign country far from my native land.

Read Full Post »