week 1

Young Ghanaians risk all for "better" life

加纳青年人为更好的生活孤注一掷

Some migrate within Africa while others take the risky route to Europe

有些只在非洲大陆迁居，有些则踏上前往欧洲的冒险旅程

By Efam Awo Dovi

Every week, in the Brong Ahafo Region — one of Ghana’s major food baskets — vehicles load up with men between 18 and 40 years old. Many, mostly the younger men, hope to reach Europe, while others head for more prosperous countries in Africa. Irrespective of their final destination, they have common aspirations: hopes of good jobs and better lives for themselves and the families they leave behind.

布朗阿哈福地区是加纳主要的食物篮（food baskets）之一。在那里，每星期都有数量交通工具搭载着18到40岁之间的男人，他们当中的很多人（大部分都是年轻人）都希望能够去欧洲，其余的那些则是前往非洲其他更加富裕的国家。尽管目的地各有不同，但愿景却是一致的，那就是为自己寻求一份更好的工作，让他们的家庭能够过上更丰盈的生活。

Kofi Twum made that trip years ago. He was only 18 and had lost his father at an early age. His mother, a subsistence farmer, became the sole breadwinner of the family. When Twum completed junior secondary school, he hawked yams to help his mother. But their living conditions worsened and Twum, fifth among six children, felt the need to work elsewhere.

科菲特乌（Kofi Twum）在数年前就离开了家乡，那时他只有18岁 。他在很小的时候就失去了父亲，妈妈是个农民，收入只能勉强维持生计，也是这个家庭唯一的经济来源。特乌完成初中学业以后就开始通过兜售山药来帮助妈妈贴补家用。但是他们的生活却每况愈下。特乌是家里六个孩子中的第五个，他感到自己有必要到其他地方找工作。

“I wanted to go to Italy to be able to support my mother,” Twum told Africa Renewal from his home in the town of Nkoranza in northern Ghana.

特乌的家乡在加纳北部的恩科兰扎。他接受《非洲振兴》的采访时说：“我曾经很想去意大利，这样我就能帮助我的妈妈了”。

In 2014, with financial support from his brother, Twum joined a group of 35 young men on a journey through the Sahara Desert to Libya, where they were to take a boat to Europe.

2014年，特乌的哥哥给了他一笔钱，之后他和另外35个青年人穿过撒哈拉沙漠来到利比亚，他们打算从那坐船去欧洲。

However, hopping a crowded boat out of Libya on his third attempt to cross the Mediterranean, he was arrested and deported to Ghana. He arrived empty-handed. Twum, now a street preacher in his 30s, tells Africa Renewal that he still hopes to make it to Europe one day, this time by some other route.

原本他以为搭载上一艘拥挤的船之后就能离开利比亚穿越地中海，但是却在过程中被逮捕并遣回加纳，这已经是他的第三次尝试了。待他回来时，已是一无所有。特乌现在30多岁，是一名街头传教士。接受采访时他说他仍然希望有一天能够去欧洲，也许通过其他路线。

A hazardous journey

风险重重的旅程

Most Ghanaian migrants trying to reach Europe via Libya go through Burkina Faso to Agadez, Niger. From there they join others from West Africa and other areas who are fleeing conflict and persecution.

从利比亚出发到欧洲的加纳移民大多都要经布基纳法索（Burkina Faso）到尼日尔的阿加德兹（Agadez）。也正是在这段路程上，他们会遇到其他为躲避冲突和压迫的人，他们当中有些来自西非，还有的来自其他地区。

With the services of middlemen, they travel on overloaded trucks in convoys and part of the way on foot through the Sahara Desert to the Borkou region near the Libyan border. It’s a death-defying experience. Many die from exhaustion and dehydration.

通过中间商的服务，他们搭乘超载的卡车，结队行驶。还要步行从撒哈拉沙漠到利比亚边境附近的博尔库地区。行程中伴随着生命危险，很多人死于疲劳过度和严重脱水。

Twum recalls the human traffickers and their extortionate demands for money. Also unforgettable was the sight of many lifeless bodies abandoned in the hot Saharan Desert. “Some were leaning on the rocks, they looked like they were sleeping, others were buried in the dust,” he recalled.

特乌现在还会回想起那些人贩子，他们给出的价格简直就是敲诈勒索。让特乌难忘的还有撒哈拉沙漠里那些被遗弃的死尸，特乌回忆说：“有些倚着石头，看起来好像是在睡觉，还有的埋在土里。”

Three of his fellow travellers died. “They couldn’t continue the walk. When that happens, we try to encourage them, but after a while you have to leave them, because if you’re left behind you’ll lose your way, and you’ll soon die,” he said. “These were people I knew, we travelled together from Nkoronza. I called their families later from Tripoli to inform them.”

三名和特乌同行的伙伴死于途中，特乌说：“他们走不动了。那时我们想要鼓励他们，但不能耽搁太长时间，因为如果被队伍落下的话，我们自己也会迷路，就会有生命危险。他们都是我认识的人，我们从恩科洛桑（Nkoronza）开始同行。抵达的黎波里之后，我打电话给他们家里，通知了他们的家人。”

Twum’s story is all too common in the Brong Ahafo Region, with echoes across Ghana and other sub-Saharan African countries.

类似特乌的故事在布朗阿哈福地区已经司空见惯了，整个加纳及其他撒哈拉南部的非洲国家都反复上演着相似的故事。

During the 2011 Libyan crisis and the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, more than 18,000 Ghanaian migrants in Libya were evacuated, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Ghana. The actual number of returnees, however, could be higher as some migrants managed to get out of Libya on their own before the crisis worsened.

据国际移民组织（IOM）驻加纳办事处的统计，在2011年利比亚危机和卡扎菲倒台期间，利比亚驱散了超过1万8千名的加纳移民。考虑到有些移民在局势恶化前就离开了利比亚，实际遣返者的数量可能还要更高一些。

The majority of the returnees were sent back to the Brong Ahafo Region, from which they came, according to the IOM, which supported the Ghanaian government in evacuating its stranded nationals.

IOM帮助加纳政府转移了加纳的滞留公民，据其统计，大部分遣返者都被送回了布朗阿哈福地区，他们原本也是从那里出发的。

For many families in Brong Ahafo, having a relative in Europe confers prestige and the prospect of remittances. “Every household hopes to have someone in Europe,” says Walter Kwao-Anati, the director of migration at Ghana’s Ministry of the Interior.

对于很多生活在布朗阿哈福的家庭来说，有亲信在欧洲就意味着声望和可观的资金援助。加纳内政部移民局局长沃尔特·库沃·阿纳蒂（Walter Kwao-Anati）说：“每个家庭都希望能有家人在欧洲。”

In some cases, he adds, “There is community support for relatives to leave, because your family will be looked down upon if no one has left for Europe.”

他还说，“在某些情况下，社区也会提供支持，帮助其成员离开本地。因为如果一个家族当中没有人去欧洲的话，就会被看不起。”

And there is also the expectation of financial support to the family back home, which helps to improve the family’s living conditions. According to the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook 2015 report, remittances, at $64 billion in 2015, remain the most stable and important single source of external finance to Africa.

除此之外，成员家里也要相应提供资金支持，因为这本身也是在提高自己家庭的生活水平。根据非洲开发银行出具的《2015非洲经济展望》报告，2015年由此带来的汇款金额达640亿美元，是非洲地区外来资金最主要也是最稳定的来源。

But beneath the veil of perceived prestige are bigger national development issues. Kwao-Anati admits that in the case of Ghana, “Poverty is one of the major reasons why people migrate in search of economic opportunities.”

在这些关乎声望的表象背后，是更大的国家发展问题。库沃·阿纳蒂说：“就加纳来说，人们之所以通过移民的方式寻找赚钱的机会，很大一部分是出于贫困。”