Nigerian Asylum Seeker Seeking For International Protection

A 30 years old Nigerian asylum seeker Ogochukwu Efeizomor, is reported to have been begging or learning
Italian in Milan Northern Italy, as he waits for a decision on his application, while anti-migrant tensions rise under Italy’s new populist government.

He has long settled on a specific corner, near a coffee bar and a garage, about a 20-minute walk from the station. 

He stands with a yellow wool cap to ask passers-by for change always with a smile, always a "buon giorno," never insisting too much.

The change, food and sometimes clothes that people bring him supplement the meals and the 2.50 euros a day he receives from the center. 

Sometimes he even gets a 10- or 20-euro bill.

Efeizomor is a trained civil engineer as gathered and hails from Southern Nigeria. 

He however, lost his job with an oil company in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, after a series of health problems.  

Efeizomor, suffers from acute appendicitis, problems with the mammary glands, kidney issues and dental problems. 

He said to have sustained two wounds on his hands from where he says a cultist who wanted to induct him into a secret society burned his hands, "which left me an everlasting mark."

He decided to leave Nigeria in 2016, reaching Libya and then boarding a smugglers' boat toward Italy.

In Italy, he has had three surgeries, two on the stomach and one on the mammary glands. 

Now, he is waiting for his asylum application to be processed, seeking international protection based on human rights violations suffered in his native country. 

He studies Italian some days, and others he panhandles, standing on his chosen corner from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., before returning to Lecco on the train.

Sometimes passers-by call him "Marrocchino," a vaguely insulting moniker used generally for North Africans. 

Efeizomor prefers to focus on the kind people.

"Italy has always been my dream," he says. "To live with other nationalities."
                                                Source: SF Gate