Young Ghanaians risk all for "better" life
加納年輕人的孤注一擲
Some migrate within Africa while others take the risky route to Europe
輾轉居于非洲，或冒險前往歐洲
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，在加納的一個主要食品基地布隆阿哈佛地區(qū)，交通工具上都擠滿了18至40歲的男人。很多人希望能去歐洲，尤其是年輕男人；而另一些人，則以那些比加納繁榮的非洲國家為目的地。撇開他們的不同目標不談，這些人有著共同的渴望：渴望得到好的工作，渴望為自己、為身后的家人爭取更好的生活。
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·圖溫姆數(shù)年前踏上了那一條道路。當年，他只有18歲，且父親早亡。他那掙扎在溫飽線上的農(nóng)民母親便成為了唯一養(yǎng)家糊口的人。圖溫姆完成初二血液后，便走街串巷、叫賣山芋來幫助母親。盡管如此，他們的生活水平仍舊每況愈下，排行第五的圖溫姆覺得，自己應該外出打工。
“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，來幫我媽，”圖溫姆對《非洲復興報》說?！斗侵迯团d報》來自他的家鄉(xiāng)，北加納的柯蘭扎鎮(zhèn)。
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，在哥哥的經(jīng)濟支持下，圖溫姆加入了一支35人的隊伍，穿越撒哈拉，到達了利比亞。他們打算從利比亞乘船去歐洲。
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亞登上一艘擁擠的小船，試圖橫渡地中海時，他被逮捕并強行遣返了加納。他一無所獲?，F(xiàn)在，已過而立的圖溫姆，成為了一名街頭傳教士。他告訴《非洲復興報》，自己扔希望有一天能夠到達歐洲，而這一次，他會嘗試另一條道路。
A hazardous journey
一場冒險之旅
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.
大多數(shù)加納的移民都試圖途徑利比亞、穿越布基納法索，到達尼日爾的阿加德茲，從而抵達歐洲。在阿加德茲，他們會與另一批人匯合在一起。這批人或是西非人，或是來自其他地區(qū)的、在迫害中逃亡的人們。
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.
通過中間人的搭橋，他們有時搭載超載的卡車車隊，有時徒步行進，跨越了撒哈拉，來到靠近利比亞邊境的博爾庫。這是一段視死如歸的旅程。許多人脫水而亡，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.
圖溫姆回想起人販子和他們對金錢的貪得無厭。同樣歷歷在目、難以忘懷的還有撒哈拉沙漠里被遺棄的尸體?！坝行┦w靠在石頭上，看起來就像是睡著了一樣；還有一些，掩埋在沙子里?！彼貞浀馈?/p>
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?！八麄冏卟粍恿?。那時候，我們試著鼓勵他們，但不久之后便不得不拋下他們；因為一旦自己掉隊了，就會迷路，然后很快就會死去。”他說，“我認識他們，我們從柯蘭扎開始就一起趕路。后來，我在特里波利給他們家里打了電話，通知了他們。”
Twum’s story is all too common in the Brong Ahafo Region, with echoes across Ghana and other sub-Saharan African countries.
在布隆阿哈佛地區(qū)，圖溫姆的故事實在太尋常了，在整個加納乃至撒哈拉以南的非洲國家都時有發(fā)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.
根據(jù)國際移民者組織駐加納辦事處的數(shù)據(jù)，在2011年離異危機和推翻卡扎菲政權期間，有超過一萬八千名加納一名被撤離了利比亞。然而，實際上的歸國者數(shù)量可能超過這一數(shù)字，因為有些移民在事態(tài)惡化之前就自己逃離了利比亞。
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.
在車里過敏方面基于了加納政府支持的IOM組織表示，大部分回國的人已經(jīng)被送回了布隆阿哈佛地區(qū)，他們的家鄉(xiāng)。
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.
對于布隆阿哈佛地區(qū)的許多家庭來說，有一個在歐洲的親戚便意味著家族的聲望和得到匯款的保障?！懊恳粋€家庭都希望能有個親戚在歐洲?！奔蛹{內(nèi)政部移民局局長沃爾特·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.”
有的時候，他補充道，“會有社區(qū)資金支持親屬去歐洲，因為如果沒有一個人前往歐洲，整個家族都會為之蒙羞?！?/p>
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.
對于有人回來的家庭，也會有對金錢支持的期望，它會幫助提高這個家庭的生存條件。根據(jù)非洲發(fā)展銀行2015年的非洲經(jīng)濟發(fā)展綱要，2015年的國外匯款為640億美元，這仍然是非洲外部融資最穩(wěn)定、最重要的單一來源。
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.”?
但在引人注目的聲望的面紗下，隱含著更大的國家發(fā)展問題?？仆?阿那提承認，對于加納來說，“貧窮是人們移民國外、尋找經(jīng)濟機遇的主要原因之一。”
