Edmirson Lamine Seydi
Is a painter and he comes from Guinea-Bissau, to be precise, from Mansoa, in the region of Oio. He was born there 36 years ago. He has lived through a civil war and its consequences since 1998.
Edmirson left his country not only because of the armed conflict but also because of some problems in his family. His father is a Muslim and his mother is Christian and from Cape Verde. They got divorced when Edmirson was 12 years old and his sister was two.
His mother died in 2017. That was the moment in which his father demanded his daughter for a forced marriage, even though she was only 14. At that moment, Edmirson and his sister escaped from their house to his aunt’s in search of an alternative. The following year, Edmirson entered in Senegal and lived in M’Bour, where he could work and obtain his Senegalese legal documentation. In February 2020, he obtained political asylum from the Portuguese embassy with a period of four months to arrive in Europe. Nevertheless, that period coincided with the travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, so he lost his application. The only solution to reach the Portuguese shores was to travel on the dinghy that arrived in the Canary Islands. Despite Portugal granting him his right to political asylum, he has been retained in Tenerife for some months. He just wants to share a safe life with his sister.
Edmirson Lamine eydi
Is a painter and he comes from Guinea-Bissau, to be precise, from Mansoa, in the region of Oio. He was born there 36 years ago. He has lived through a civil war and its consequences since 1998.
Edmirson left his country not only because of the armed conflict but also because of some problems in his family. His father is a Muslim and his mother is Christian and from Cape Verde. They got divorced when Edmirson was 12 years old and his sister was two.
His mother died in 2017. That was the moment in which his father demanded his daughter for a forced marriage, even though she was only 14. At that moment, Edmirson and his sister escaped from their house to his aunt’s in search of an alternative. The following year, Edmirson entered in Senegal and lived in M’Bour, where he could work and obtain his Senegalese legal documentation. In February 2020, he obtained political asylum from the Portuguese embassy with a period of four months to arrive in Europe. Nevertheless, that period coincided with the travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, so he lost his application. The only solution to reach the Portuguese shores was to travel on the dinghy that arrived in the Canary Islands. Despite Portugal granting him his right to political asylum, he has been retained in Tenerife for some months. He just wants to share a safe life with his sister.
