In recent years, thousands of asylum seekers, mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, have made their way to Maine, hearing that it's a safe haven. From January to June, more than 1,600 arrived in Portland in need of help. The city found itself frequently overwhelmed, with little to no space available in its shelters as families, including many with small children, kept coming. Community groups, nonprofits and churches helped house and guide the newcomers. The city turned the gym in the Portland Expo into temporary housing from the spring into late summer. Our photographers spent months this year documenting the lives of new asylum seekers trying to make their way in an unfamiliar place and checking in on others who had been for years to see how their lives in Maine had turned out.
Hosts in Portland will be eligible for payment but are being asked to commit to a longer time frame than in 2019, when a voluntary program was used to house people leaving the Portland Expo.
Hosts in Portland will be eligible for payment but are being asked to commit to a longer time frame than in 2019, when a voluntary program was used to house people leaving the Portland Expo.
In 'Long Way Home,' Press Herald reporters and photographers told the story of the large influx of asylum seekers arriving in Maine in recent years, fleeing their homelands and embarking on dangerous journeys to make a new life in Maine.
Over continents and years, through danger and illness, thousands of African asylum seekers, mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, have made their way to Maine. They tell harrowing stories of peril in their home countries and on their way to the United States, and say they came to Maine hearing they would find safety and help here.