Pablo Parra

I like being here, and day by day I feel more and more at home. But I’m still missing something, most of all my family. If you push a stone from a mountain, it rolls for a while before stopping. I am that stone, still rolling.

The civil war in Colombia has taken its toll on my life. My father was kidnapped and killed by FARC when I was a child, and as an adult I was forced to flee after an extortion attempt by an armed group. Maybe FARC, maybe ELN, maybe paramilitary. For 15 years I lived as a refugee without papers in Ecuador. I started several companies, and I won an award for an anti-corruption system that was to ensure that bus drivers could not put the ticket money directly into their own pockets without being detected. However, due to my status as a refugee, I could not open a bank account, and that put a natural end to how far I could go with my projects. After a while they all capsized, and I have had to start over many times. My arrival in Denmark marked yet another new beginning, hopefully the last. I am dreaming of a normal life where I do not have to start over all the time. I would like to have my own business here in Denmark and occasionally be able to visit my country. I welcome the peace process in Colombia. The Colombians have to choose between justice and peace. We cannot have both, and although the armed groups have cost me dearly, I choose peace.

37 years / male / single / entrepreneur / employee in Ikea / Gentofte / from Colombia / came to Denmark as a quota refugee in 2014