There are many young Guineans returning home after trying to cross the Mediterranean clandestinely without success. Boubacar Sow is one of them. Like everyone else, he had left Guinea hoping for a better life. But as expected, the rest was hellish. This is what emerges from his story. Dialogue Migration went to meet him.

Aged 32, Boubacar Sow begins his story saying: “First of all, you know, man is always in search of happiness. That’s why I had to leave.” According to the young migrant who returned home, his friends encouraged him to immigrate illegally. “I spoke with several of my friends who migrated illegally and entered Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. They encouraged me to try my luck,” he said.

Before departure

Boubacar Sow was a businessman. He practiced this activity without great difficulty for several years in Guinea before continuing it in Côte d’Ivoire. But in 2017, he stopped everything and decided to go to Europe.  

“I did business in Guinea for several years before going to Côte d’Ivoire and continuing the same activity for 2 years. Everything was fine,” he says.

The challenges of illegal migration

As soon as Boubacar Sow left Guinea, the difficulties began for him. It was in Bamako that he faced the very first challenges.

“We bought a ticket for 90,000 FCFA to go directly to Agadez (editor’s note: Morocco). Here, we encountered so many difficulties, because there were passengers who had bought tickets for two months but they had not yet moved. The car we were supposed to travel in was on hold.” It was finally on board another vehicle that the young man and several others who had bought their tickets left for Agadez. But long before, they had to put pressure on the bus station union. The action had borne fruit for some of them. In any case, according to the young man, he got a 50% ticket refund.

On Mali’s border with Burkina Faso, the other Guineans, their companions and himself, leaving for Algeria in order to cross the Mediterranean afterwards, have experienced other difficulties.  “At the border between Mali and Burkina Faso, all travelers of Guinean origin have been stripped of their passports. We had also suffered torture and even imprisonment at the border,” Boubacar points out, before adding: “All Guinean passengers paid 5,000 FCFA to recover their passports, unlike other travelers from other countries who paid only 2,000 CFA.  From Burkina, we arrived in Togo. Agents stationed at the Togolese border only ask for the vaccination card. After Togo, we headed to Benin where they asked us for the Beninese vaccination card. To get it, we had naturally paid 2,000 CFA without any consultation, because the cards we held were no longer valid.”

As the journey continued, it became hellish. At the Niger border, Boubacar Sow and the other migrants were arrested and thrown into prison. But through an overall protest they led against those who were holding them, they managed to escape. “We were several detainees and we organized ourselves to oppose them as a group. Overall, we managed to escape from the prison.”

After this escape, Boubacar Sow arrived in Agadez. On this side, too, he faced financial difficulties. To find accommodation, for example, he paid 250,000 CFA francs. From Agadez, he embarked for Libya. Something that cost him 150,000 FCFA. In addition to the cost, the trip was painful.

“We each received two bottles of water of 10 liters, no more. We traveled under a blazing sun. In the desert, you don’t see anyone. It is a 7-day journey between Agadez and Libya. Days without eating. Only water to save one’s soul.”

At Niger’s border with Libya, smugglers put Boubacar Sow and his companions in touch with an individual tasked with finding them accommodation before they arrived in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. “We had been put in touch with another gentleman who had a huge household, where you also had to pay 150 dinars (editor’s note: about 9000 FCFA) to access a home,” he said.

Getting to Tripoli was not easy either. Boubacar Sow and three other migrants were hidden under luggage loaded into a pick-up truck. This is the only way for them to reach the Libyan capital without being spotted and arrested by the police – despite the risk of suffocation.  

“From Saba, they put four of us in a pick-up by putting very heavy luggage on us. A way to hide from the police on the road. In the pick-up, under the luggage, there was lack of air. I was in a lot of pain when I was under the luggage. They were heavy and the distance was long,” the young migrant recalled.

It was under these conditions that Boubacar Sow and his companions arrived in Tripoli. Three days later, they disguise themselves as masons to be loaded into a pick-up truck that was bound for Grigarage which is an embarkation point of migrants for their crossing of the Mediterranean. The price per head was equivalent to 10 million Guinean francs (about 691,000 FCFA). Boubacar Sow paid and the smuggler took him with several other migrants overnight. However, after nearly five hours of sailing at sea, they almost died.

“We boarded around 2 a.m. After 5 hours of sailing, the boat dropped at mid-sea. That’s what led to its capsizing and all the passengers ended up in the water,” Boubacar says.

How was he saved? The young Guinean migrant does not know because just after the shipwreck, he said, he had lost consciousness. When he woke up, he said he was in a prison in Libya. Boubacar tried three times to reach Europe by clandestine means without success. His entire trip cost him 4 million FCFA. 

Homecoming

After his unsuccessful attempts to go to Europe, he headed to Morocco, the rest was disappointing. He decides to return home to rebuild himself. All that he had before as goods (motorcycles, sheep and shop) is now a distant memory. Asked if he still wants to go to Europe illegally, he replied: “I’m not going to go clandestinely anymore. I lost enough money, enough time and suffered a lot.  I have a great regret today. I am the eldest in the family. I had part of the family’s expenses before I left. Today, I have lost everything.”