Banjul, the Gambia – Ten years in the past, Alagie’s life in Banjul wasn’t straightforward. Nonetheless, he had each his dad and mom, a spouse, a house, and a dream of constructing a greater life for all of them in Europe.
Now the 34-year-old, who requested that his full identify not be used to guard his privateness, has misplaced a lot of what he had.
Alagie left the Gambia in 2014, taking the irregular “backway” to Europe earlier than he was forcibly returned eight years later.
“I wished one of the best for my spouse and future kids,” he advised Al Jazeera about his determination to depart, trying sadly on the marriage ceremony picture on his wall.
Though nonetheless married, he can not afford to help his spouse and their 10-month-old child, forcing her to return to her dad and mom’ dwelling.
“My spouse loves me deeply,” he mentioned. “If it weren’t real love, she would have divorced me and moved on.”
When Alagie first left for Europe, he travelled to Morocco by boat, then smuggled himself by land by Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, earlier than crossing the Mediterranean in the direction of Italy.
The difficulties began nearly instantly. “Many migrants I travelled with from Libya – principally from Mali, Nigeria, and some Gambians – drowned. I used to be among the many few fortunate ones who made it to Italy,” he mentioned.
Touchdown in Italy in 2015, he was instantly positioned in a refugee camp for a number of months. “The straightforward life I imagined in Europe was nothing like the tough actuality I confronted in Italy.”
Determined, Alagie determined to smuggle himself to Germany with others from Senegal, Niger and Nigeria. They thought they might discover higher alternatives, however after crossing the border, they have been picked up by German authorities and despatched to a different refugee camp.
“It was like leaping from the frying pan into the hearth. We have been packed like sardines, remoted from cities and any social life.”
Later, Alagie discovered work as a petroleum station attendant, the identical job he held again within the Gambia. He’d ship cash dwelling to his household each different month whereas striving to safe asylum.
“Life there was onerous, however dwelling within the Gambia is way worse than even the refugee camps,” he mentioned, preferring the hardships in Europe.
However Alagie’s days in Europe have been numbered. Someday in September 2022, whereas he was making breakfast within the small home he rented with different migrants, plainclothes German cops burst in. “They handcuffed me like a prison and held me in a [refugee] camp for 2 months earlier than placing me on a flight again to the Gambia,” he mentioned.
Upon arrival in Banjul, he was left with no cash or help. “I got here dwelling empty-handed, to an empty nation.”
Migration and return
Irregular migration has lengthy been a problem within the Gambia, with many younger folks – pushed by poverty – risking their lives to get to Europe looking for higher alternatives.
Greater than 35,000 Gambians arrived within the European Union between 2015 and 2022, in accordance with Frontex, the EU border management company. Throughout peak intervals, some 7,000 Gambians tried emigrate yearly, pushed by dire political and financial situations.
Underneath the 1996-2017 regime of President Yahya Jammeh, many individuals fled autocratic rule and have been granted asylum within the West on account of political repression. Because the transition to democracy in 2017, extra asylum purposes from Gambians have been rejected in comparison with earlier than, because the nation is taken into account extra steady.
There has additionally been elevated cooperation between the Gambian authorities and the EU on migration administration, together with the “Good Follow Settlement”, which outlines procedures across the return of migrants.
Since 2017, greater than 5,000 Gambians have returned, in accordance with the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM). Some are deportees, however most are voluntary repatriations, the IOM mentioned. Some returned due to the extreme hardships they encountered in Europe, whereas others had been stranded in Libya, by no means making it throughout the Mediterranean to start with.
Among the many Gambians who go away, many say the dire social and financial situations make them decided to danger the crossing.
The Gambia suffers from excessive youth unemployment, at round 41 p.c – a driving power behind irregular migration. The economic system, which is closely depending on agriculture and tourism, additionally depends upon remittances from Gambians overseas. In line with World Bank data, remittances accounted for round 26 p.c of the gross home product (GDP) in 2023.
Like many different migrants, Alagie’s dad and mom supported his determination to depart by irregular routes, hoping he would change their lives for the higher. Sadly, each handed away whereas he was overseas, leaving him with a deep sense of remorse.
“They died whereas I used to be away, with out me making their lives higher,” he lamented.
‘I assumed Europe could be totally different’
Alagie’s migration journey is echoed in conversations with different folks round Banjul.
Musa Faye is in his early 60s. He first left the Gambia at age 38, finally making it to the USA, the place he lived for 20 years till he was deported in 2017.
“Life within the Gambia appeared higher again then,” he mirrored. “Now, it’s a catastrophe – nothing is functioning, and the nation is in a dire state.”
Faye left behind a spouse and three kids within the Gambia, with the hope of constructing sufficient cash to take them to the US – however it by no means panned out.
“There are not any jobs in Gambia; folks undergo day-after-day,” the taxi driver mentioned. “I did the identical job in America, however right here it’s a nightmare. At my age, I must be excited about retirement, however that’s not an choice.
“The American dream didn’t end up as I had hoped,” he mentioned, “however it’s nonetheless much better than life right here.”
The attract of life overseas, usually amplified by social media, drives many to danger perilous journeys looking for a greater life.
Rohey, who didn’t need to disclose her surname to keep up anonymity, was seduced by the glamorous photographs she noticed posted on social media by a highschool good friend dwelling in Italy.
“I assumed Europe was like jannah [paradise]. Seeing her posts made me suppose, ‘That is the life I would like, too,’” the 36-year-old salon employee mentioned.
So she launched into the dangerous journey in 2010, arriving in Libya in 2011, simply because the civil battle erupted. That’s when her “nightmare” started.
“I used to be raped a number of occasions and compelled into onerous labour with out pay,” Rohey mentioned.
Nonetheless, she wished to proceed, finally paying smugglers to cross the Mediterranean to Italy. “I needed to conceal some cash in my pants simply to afford the journey.”
In Italy, she labored as a hairdresser however discovered life removed from the paradise she had envisioned. “I assumed Europe could be totally different – straightforward cash and an excellent life. I used to be improper.” Her room was a tiny, leaking house she describes as a “hell”.
Again within the Gambia since 2019, Rohey works in a salon simply outdoors Banjul. “The salon is sort of at all times empty. Typically I stroll 6km [4 miles] dwelling as a result of I can’t even make sufficient for transport fare,” she mentioned.
Rohey considers her return a type of “voluntary deportation”, saying that many migrant girls are pressured into prostitution – a destiny she refused to just accept, so she left. “I’d somewhat return to the hardship in my dwelling nation than interact in prostitution,” she mentioned.
Years of journey
The highway migrants journey to succeed in their imagined higher life overseas is sort of at all times an arduous one, and the journey typically takes years.
Ousman Jobe, now 44, first ventured throughout the Sahara in 1998 at simply 18. His journey from the Gambia to Morocco took 4 gruelling years. “We drove by the Sahara Desert, typically overlaying over 1,000km [620 miles] earlier than seeing one other nation,” he remembered.
Jobe travelled with greater than 40 Gambians in a truck, some as younger as 15, together with girls and kids. The journey was perilous. “We ran out of water, and we needed to drink our urine or have another person urinate in our mouths as a result of we had none left,” he mentioned.
The cruel situations claimed many lives, principally from Senegal and Mali. Because the eldest, Jobe was answerable for burying them. “We buried them in mass graves or typically simply left their our bodies.”
There have been different risks, too. “[Criminals] stopped us on the best way to Algeria by Morocco, forcefully taking the lads’s cash whereas raping the ladies in entrance of us,” he mentioned. “It was devastating to witness, however we have been helpless.”
Jobe left the Gambia as a result of he “was bored with seeing my dad and mom in poverty”, he mentioned, and wished to assist them. Tragically, his mom – who offered goats to earn the cash wanted for his crossing to Europe – handed away in 2021 earlier than seeing the household’s dream of a greater life fulfilled.
Morro, one other returnee who requested that his actual identify not be used, additionally wanted “vital funds” for his 2019 journey – cash additionally raised by his dad and mom.
“My dad and mom supported me on this journey as a result of they only wished me to succeed in Europe and higher their lives,” the now 28-year-old mentioned.
However his journey ended nearly as quickly because it started when the small boat he was travelling in sank off the coast of Mauritania. Greater than 60 Gambians died that day, however Morro narrowly escaped. “My swimming abilities saved me from drowning,” he mentioned.
He returned dwelling instantly afterwards, however nonetheless relives the trauma of that day. “It’s onerous to elucidate. It was essentially the most devastating and painful expertise of my life.”
Morro has since joined D419, an affiliation of survivors and returnees named after the date of the shipwreck, December 4, 2019. The group’s targets are to honour those that died and lift consciousness concerning the perils of comparable journeys. “We have to combat in opposition to this harmful route,” mentioned Morro, now a vocal advocate in opposition to irregular migration.
However he nonetheless goals of taking a safer path to Europe. “Europe is so totally different from the Gambia. If I had made it there, my life and my household’s would have reworked for the higher,” he mentioned.
Since Jobe’s voluntary return to the Gambia in 2019, he has additionally used his voice to discourage others from taking the irregular path to Europe. “I need to discourage others from utilizing this harmful route … It’s lethal, and folks have to be warned.”
However he admits life is just not straightforward in Banjul. He was making a dwelling by driving a taxi, however now sells secondhand sneakers in his neighbourhood. “On an excellent day, I make 1,000 dalasi ($14),” he mentioned, “however some days I am going dwelling and not using a sale.” Dwelling hand to mouth, Jobe usually has to decide on between meals and hire.
Struggling to manage
For folks taking the backway to Europe and the US, the journey is normally fraught with risks whereas their time spent within the West usually comes with merciless remedy and even violence, the IOM has famous.
In March, as an illustration, Gambian Lamin Touray was killed by German authorities, and his ugly loss of life was captured on video. Final yr, Gambian Basirou Jallow was murdered by a German nationwide. And this yr, whereas being deported, Saikou Kanteh endured a brutal assault by German authorities. He was gagged with a metallic ring earlier than being forcibly despatched again to the Gambia; it took days for the metallic ring to be faraway from his mouth.
Again dwelling, there are additional challenges. The psychological well being disaster amongst Gambian deportees has reached alarming ranges, specialists say, with many struggling extreme psychological misery, and a few even taking their very own lives.
In 2019, Buba Baldeh, a deportee from Italy, was arrested for killing two sufferers on the Gambia’s solely psychiatric hospital, Tanka Tanka. The 27-year-old was deported in 2018 after a failed asylum bid and subsequently struggled with psychological sickness. The victims have been fellow sufferers on the hospital, additionally believed to be deportees from Italy.
Earlier this yr, a younger man from the Central River area of the nation, deported from Italy, ended his life. In his suicide notice, he wrote: “I’m asking everybody for forgiveness. I’ve nothing on this life, so I made a decision to kill myself.”
His brother, Foday, described him as a loving man who wished one of the best for his household. “His deportation took a heavy toll on him, and he ended his life at 26 years.”
At Tanka Tanka Psychiatric Hospital, the ability’s matron, Bakary Camara, advised Al Jazeera that 12 returnees are presently admitted and affected by psychological well being points.
“Among the deportees are taken immediately from the airport to the psychiatric hospital as a result of that they had already been recognized with psychological problems in Germany or Italy and deported straight to the Gambia. Others are delivered to the hospital by their households after exhibiting indicators of psychological well being issues upon their return,” Camara mentioned.
“We’re overwhelmed with instances like these for the time being.”
For its half, the Gambian authorities mentioned it’s dedicated to the reintegration of returnees, working carefully with worldwide organisations together with the United Nations and establishing programmes to help with abilities coaching, and reintegration.
“We’re actively collaborating with improvement companions to make sure returnees have the alternatives and sources to rebuild their lives,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Youth mentioned. “By vocational coaching, psychosocial help, and entrepreneurship, we intention to empower them and mitigate the basis causes of irregular migration.”
Gambia-EU settlement
In 2018, the Gambia and the EU signed the Good Follow Settlement, aiming to handle the return of Gambian migrants. It was a part of a broader effort to handle irregular migration and strengthen cooperation between the 2.
Nonetheless, the settlement sparked widespread debate, particularly on social media and notably when a flight from Germany in February 2019 confronted entry points on account of an absence of communication with Banjul authorities. A public demonstration the following month highlighted the tensions surrounding the deal, particularly as there was a moratorium on migrant returns in place till 2022.
This July, following native media experiences alleging frequent deportations from Europe and a excessive variety of returnees, the EU’s ambassador to the Gambia, Corrado Pampaloni, mentioned: “There are not any mass deportations going down from European international locations to the Gambia or every other nation”.
He mentioned returns have been occurring in small numbers (tens as a substitute of a whole lot) and that deportations that do happen are probably on account of particular bilateral agreements or exceptions that permit deportations from sure international locations.
Nonetheless, Yahya Sonko, a Gambian migrant activist primarily based in Germany, mentioned greater than 400 Gambians have been repatriated in 2023 alone. Moreover, there are greater than 20,000 undocumented Gambians presently residing in Europe.
Whereas many Gambians have been granted asylum within the West throughout the Jammeh period – the precise quantity is just not recognized, however has included journalists, politicians and activists – folks like Alagie weren’t so lucky.
His software was rejected in 2017, the identical yr the democratic authorities of President Adama Barrow assumed energy.
“They rejected my asylum as a result of they mentioned we might return dwelling to a steady Gambia,” Alagie mentioned, including that German authorities advised him his dwelling nation was “a brand new democratic state” whereas turning down his software.
Alagie expressed his frustration with Barrow’s administration, calling it a “curse”.
“Now we’re again to nothing, and it’s miserable to reside on this nation,” he mentioned.
Regardless of the dangers, together with the high number of Gambian deaths on perilous journeys, many proceed emigrate.
Alagie understands the lure of Europe, which shines as a beacon of hope for him and plenty of younger Gambians – regardless of the threats they know are there.
Decided to return, he’s even contemplating taking the arduous backway route but once more.
“I need to higher my spouse and little one’s lives,” Alagie mentioned. “I’ll die making an attempt.”
