Refugee finds anchor after years adrift

Mention asylum seekers, and many people in Europe imagine waves of illegal immigrants sweeping onto the continent in search of a better life. But amid the crowds are many individuals with genuine grounds for asylum. Congolese refugee Chantal is one such example. The 36-year-old's journey lasted almost four years, a flight of despair that led her across four countries before finding safety in southern Italy, where she currently lives. Her ordeal started on May 14, 1999, the day she and her husband Jose held a meeting to set up a local resistance committee to defend civilians against the rebel militia that had driven thousands of people out of their homes in Zongo, a small town 350 km south-east of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.