I listened to his advice and stayed home. I haven’t left the house since. I’m in here with ten of my friends. We’re afraid to go outside and get picked up by the police. Many of our friends were arrested, at the mosque or in the streets. My cousin and his wife were arrested too. Yet they, like me, have their papers in order allowing them to live and work in Angola. But having papers isn’t enough to avoid going to prison here! [Editor’s note: Many other immigrants interviewed by FRANCE 24 complained about this problem.]



Here, you have to pay for everything. As a taxi driver, the police are always stopping me and asking me for money. Often, they’ll slap me around. They don’t like foreigners very much, even less so those of us who speak French.



We’re in contact with some of the people who have been arrested. Most of them had their mobile phones confiscated, but a few managed to hide theirs and keep them in prison. They told us the prison was badly overcrowded, that men and women were mixed together, and that many of them were forced to sit outside in the yard, under the hot sun. They only get fed once a day. And they say the prison guards hit some of them.



We called the Ivorian embassy, but they told us that for now, the ambassador hadn’t been allowed to visit the prisoners. They told us to stay indoors until the situation calms down.