Guns, guards, snarling dogs: a child migrant’s story

Javier Zamora travelled alone from El Salvador to the US when he was just nine years old.

He had been living with relatives after his parents migrated to the US, but longed to be in his mother’s arms. His parents hired a ‘coyote’, or people smuggler, to bring him across the borders, but the trip went wrong. Javier was abandoned by the coyote, and found himself reliant on strangers for survival as he journeyed for two months by bus, boat, and on foot, nearly dying in the Sonoran Desert. Javier is now a poet in the US, whose work explores the trauma of that experience, and what it means to be an undocumented migrant.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Rebecca Vincent