Voyageur clandestin

We are on the road with a resourceful young man determined to leave his former Soviet homeland for a better life in the west. Yuli is from the Ukraine but he has procured a Latvian passport and has been given a three-month visitor's visa to come to Germany. He has told the authorities in Berlin that he is a Chechen refugee and orphan without any papers. He has told them he is fifteen. In fact, he is 22 years old. However, under EU law the Germans are obliged to house, feed and educate him whilst his claim for asylum is processed, so he lives in a children's home. He receives £150 a month pocket money from the state. But Yuli is disillusioned about the EU. It is not all he imagined. He likes travel and see what opportunities there are for him in the rest of the EU. The Schengen agreement, which was signed by all EU countries except Britain and Ireland, allows people to travel free, across borders, once they are inside the EU. Although Yuli is claiming refugee status he still has his passport and visa. He decides to see what Paris is like and then calls a friend in the Canaries to see if things are better there than in Germany. With his visa expiring, Yuli must cross back into Poland and then try to get another visa back into Germany. He succeeds and teams up with a gang of Mongolian immigrants in Berlin, stealing vodka from shops and selling it back to street stalls. He manages to save enough money to fly to Gran Canaria, which is part of the EU and meets up with his old friend Tolya who shows him the ropes. He gets a job as handyman to a wealthy German woman living in the hills, but will he stay and if not, where in Europe will he go next.