Young Ghanaians risk all for "better" life

加纳年轻人的孤注一掷

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

辗转居于非洲，或冒险前往欧洲

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.

每一周，在加纳的一个主要食品基地布隆阿哈佛地区，交通工具上都挤满了18至40岁的男人。很多人希望能去欧洲，尤其是年轻男人；而另一些人，则以那些比加纳繁荣的非洲国家为目的地。撇开他们的不同目标不谈，这些人有着共同的渴望：渴望得到好的工作，渴望为自己、为身后的家人争取更好的生活。

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·图温姆数年前踏上了那一条道路。当年，他只有18岁，且父亲早亡。他那挣扎在温饱线上的农民母亲便成为了唯一养家糊口的人。图温姆完成初二血液后，便走街串巷、叫卖山芋来帮助母亲。尽管如此，他们的生活水平仍旧每况愈下，排行第五的图温姆觉得，自己应该外出打工。

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

“我想去意大利工作，来帮我妈，”图温姆对《非洲复兴报》说。《非洲复兴报》来自他的家乡，北加纳的柯兰扎镇。

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，在哥哥的经济支持下，图温姆加入了一支35人的队伍，穿越撒哈拉，到达了利比亚。他们打算从利比亚乘船去欧洲。

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.

然而，就在他第三次在利比亚登上一艘拥挤的小船，试图横渡地中海时，他被逮捕并强行遣返了加纳。他一无所获。现在，已过而立的图温姆，成为了一名街头传教士。他告诉《非洲复兴报》，自己扔希望有一天能够到达欧洲，而这一次，他会尝试另一条道路。

A hazardous journey

一场冒险之旅

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.

大多数加纳的移民都试图途径利比亚、穿越布基纳法索，到达尼日尔的阿加德兹，从而抵达欧洲。在阿加德兹，他们会与另一批人汇合在一起。这批人或是西非人，或是来自其他地区的、在迫害中逃亡的人们。

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.

通过中间人的搭桥，他们有时搭载超载的卡车车队，有时徒步行进，跨越了撒哈拉，来到靠近利比亚边境的博尔库。这是一段视死如归的旅程。许多人脱水而亡，或是精疲力竭地死去。

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.

图温姆回想起人贩子和他们对金钱的贪得无厌。同样历历在目、难以忘怀的还有撒哈拉沙漠里被遗弃的尸体。“有些尸体靠在石头上，看起来就像是睡着了一样；还有一些，掩埋在沙子里。”他回忆道。

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.”

他的同伴中以三人失去了生命。“他们走不动了。那时候，我们试着鼓励他们，但不久之后便不得不抛下他们；因为一旦自己掉队了，就会迷路，然后很快就会死去。”他说，“我认识他们，我们从柯兰扎开始就一起赶路。后来，我在特里波利给他们家里打了电话，通知了他们。”

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

在布隆阿哈佛地区，图温姆的故事实在太寻常了，在整个加纳乃至撒哈拉以南的非洲国家都时有发生。

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.

根据国际移民者组织驻加纳办事处的数据，在2011年离异危机和推翻卡扎菲政权期间，有超过一万八千名加纳一名被撤离了利比亚。然而，实际上的归国者数量可能超过这一数字，因为有些移民在事态恶化之前就自己逃离了利比亚。

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.

在车里过敏方面基于了加纳政府支持的IOM组织表示，大部分回国的人已经被送回了布隆阿哈佛地区，他们的家乡。

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.

对于布隆阿哈佛地区的许多家庭来说，有一个在欧洲的亲戚便意味着家族的声望和得到汇款的保障。“每一个家庭都希望能有个亲戚在欧洲。”加纳内政部移民局局长沃尔特·科瓦-阿那提表示。

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

有的时候，他补充道，“会有社区资金支持亲属去欧洲，因为如果没有一个人前往欧洲，整个家族都会为之蒙羞。”

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.

对于有人回来的家庭，也会有对金钱支持的期望，它会帮助提高这个家庭的生存条件。根据非洲发展银行2015年的非洲经济发展纲要，2015年的国外汇款为640亿美元，这仍然是非洲外部融资最稳定、最重要的单一来源。

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.” 

但在引人注目的声望的面纱下，隐含着更大的国家发展问题。科瓦-阿那提承认，对于加纳来说，“贫穷是人们移民国外、寻找经济机遇的主要原因之一。”