A familiar melody reached my ears amidst the din reverberating in one of the busy train stations in Paris. The refrain even caught the attention of the otherwise nonchalant passersby hurrying to wherever they were going. Several approached the woman and took a few minutes out of their daily commute to listen to her sing songs unlike they had ever heard.

They seemed to enjoy the performance for they had smiles on their faces. The melody was “Ter voghormya” (Lord have mercy). The satisfied commuters dug into their change purses and tossed a few coins into the box placed in front of the musician. I stood and listened to the musical medley. “Ter voghormya” was succeeded by the “Hayr Mer” (Lord’s Prayer, followed by the melancholic tune “Hayrenikes heratsel em” (I have left the homeland). It was difficult at first to get Karineh to talk to me. She had her doubts. Karineh Gevorgyan left Armenia in 2008. She said that she had certain problems that forced her to sell her house and travel to Paris with her daughter. The visas cost them $11,200. “Why did I choose France? Because I had heard that life here was relatively normal. But I definitely came with the conviction that I would return,” she said.

I was seduced by promises of an easy life in Europe

All her expectations changes after arriving in France. The mother and daughter applied for asylum to the appropriate government agencies. The state only offered them a temporary place to stay. The 300 Euro monthly allowance that she had been told about back in Armenia never materialized. For a few months they were able to receive 70 Euros in spending money but, in an expensive city like Paris, this isn’t even enough to cover meals for two people. On several occasions they were even given food handouts. “From time to time, they gave us food parcels. They’d tell us to eat the stuff that very day since the expiration was ending,” Karineh recounts. For over a year, Karineh and her daughter managed to get through some tough times. Their health suffered as a result. Karineh Gevorgyan, like many others before her, was seduced by dreams of an “easy life” in Europe. Back in Armenia, they didn’t tell her about the realities that they’d face once they had arrived. Not knowing the language and having no substantive basis for traveling to France, I wondered how the two of them ever managed to obtain the necessary entry documents for these are quite difficult to come by. Not wishing to name names, Karineh, in all honesty, merely said that several people had intervened in the process that finally was successfully concluded. These were the people with the all important “stamps”. Once negotiations were conducted, the all important papers followed in quick succession. In the end, they had no trouble at all getting their visas from the Italian embassy.

“Tell them your husband is a Turk”

These “document dealers” warned Ms. Gevorgyan in advance to hold on to her passport and to lie. “There was a woman who said that after turning myself in I should say that my husband is a Turk. But I couldn’t do it. They were giving 300 Euros to anyone who lied and said their husband was a Turk. They told me not to show my passport, but they didn’t say why. So I presented my passport. I didn’t know that I would be deprived of any money. I really don’t understand how anyone can be so stupid to think that things are good here. They are really involved in some low-down and dirty dealings. I tell them that they should go to Armenia but they answer back that ‘we feel comfortable here’. And what do these people do here to scrape by? They clean people’s homes. They cheat and steal. They’ve really sunk to the pits. What’s the difference – they’re the same hungry Armenians.” Karineh Gevorgyan described all the hardships that she and her daughter had to overcome in France. In the market, someone swiped her bag, containing her passport, money and a selection of some of the best poems she had written and brought to France in the hope of getting them published.

Armenian portals… Old, moss-covered, but not forgotten, Transformed into a fragment in the depth of my soul, They give me strength and shatter me to pieces, Armenian portals… Karineh recited this poem on the cobblestoned heights of Montmartre; tears rolling down her cheeks. She and her daughter will soon return to Armenia. “My heart really goes out to those people who still don’t realize the mistake they’ve made by replacing that for this. These people say, ‘even if they shoot me I won’t go back’. At least the basic necessities should be guaranteed and work made available for these holdouts. Who knows – their kids could grow up to be geniuses and remain on foreign shores,” Karineh laments. Naturally, new difficulties await Karineh and her daughter back in Armenia. They have no home. They pinned their hopes on the 2,000 Euros granted by the French Immigration and Integration Office to each adult that voluntarily returns. “At least I’ll be able to buy a place, even if it’s in the less desirable neighborhoods. Just as long as we have a roof over our heads, “Karineh says.

Sargis Ghazaryan – I paid 5,200 Euros for each visa

Also without a roof over their heads are Sargis Ghazaryan and his family. Mr. Ghazaryan came to France with his wife and four kids this year. Their story is the same. Sargis sold the house and paid 5,200 Euros for each visa. They too got their visas from the Italian Embassy – hassle free. The “document dealer” is a person from Yerevan who for years has been forging fake documents and shuttling people to France by way of the Italian Embassy “I met that person quite by accident. He told me the story and made promises. He assured me that they’d give me a monthly allowance and a place to live. He even told me not to take any clothes for the children. Honestly, he went so far as to claim that the people whom he’d sent were still calling him up and thanking him. The guy said that my kids would have a promising future in front of them. He told me, ‘Go and see for yourself. You’ll curse the day that you were born an Armenian’,” recounts Sargis. This “broker” also told Sargis that he had a friend on the “inside”, in the government, that had been helping him. “He told me that he’d been doing this work for several years and that he’d never been caught.” Sargis’ wife said that there were three other families in the same plane traveling to France. All of them had obtained their visas through the same man. Upon arrival in France they were met by the mother and brother of the “document dealer” and paid them again for a number of minor expenses. “This man advised us to give an Azeri name when we arrived so that they would grant us asylum. But as an Armenian I don’t want to betray my country and make up lies. We were simply deceived into coming here and we’re contemplating returning,” Sargis said. When this article appears they will have already spent all the money they brought with them and are preparing to go back to Armenia. But they too don’t have a house to come home to. Mr. Ghazaryan made a point of noting that when he gets back he’ll be settling some scores with the “document dealer” and that he’ll be demanding his money back. “I’ve been conned, and I’ve lost my house in the process,” he says. Unfortunately, the Gevorgyan and Ghazaryan families are the only ones to have been duped in such a fashion and, most likely than not, they won’t be the last. The illegal flow of Armenians to France continues as we speak. Many of these families sell their homes and property in Armenia to pay for the journey and thus they burn their bridges to return behind them. One Sunday, during services at the Armenian church in Paris, a woman told me that yet another family had turned themselves in to authorities, requesting asylum – a mother and four children. The mother already regrets ever leaving Armenia but that she can’t return, having sold their home.

Seda Grigoryan, Paris p.s. – All the names of people in the article have been changed. “Hetq” will cover the families in greater detail and the visa network operating out of the Italian embassy in Yerevan once they have returned to Armenia.