Young Ghanaians risk all for "better" life
加纳年轻人为更好的生活而冒险
Some migrate within Africa while others take the risky route to Europe
有些人选择州内移民，而一些人冒险踏上去欧洲的艰难旅程
By Efam Awo Dovi
文：Efam Awo Dovi 译：毕冉
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.
每周，在加纳的主要粮食产地——布朗阿哈福地区，都有车辆满载着18至40岁的人，其中大多数是年轻的男性，有的人打算前往欧洲，而有人想要去非洲更富裕的国家。无论终点是何处，他们的期望是相同的：想要更好的工作和给自己及家乡的亲人更好的生活。
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.
几年前，科菲·图姆就有过这样的经历。那时早年丧父的他只有18岁。他的母亲是个仅能维持生计的农民，成为了家里唯一的的支柱。图姆初中毕业后就帮着母亲沿街叫卖红薯。而他们的生活状况却越来越差，于是在六个孩子中排行第五的图姆觉得他有必要去别处工作谋生。
“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.
在他加纳北部恩科兰扎镇的家里，图姆告诉《非洲振兴》的记者：“我想去意大利工作，这样就能帮到我的母亲”
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，在哥哥的资助下，图姆加入了一个由35个年轻人组成的队伍，他们将穿过撒哈拉沙漠到利比亚，再坐船去欧洲。
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.
然而，当他第三次尝试乘上拥挤的船打算从利比亚穿越地中海时，他被逮捕并遣返回了加纳。他一无所获。如今，30岁的图姆是一名街头传教士，他告诉《非洲振兴》的记者他仍希望有一天可以到达欧洲，那时可得换个路线。
A hazardous journey
危险四伏的旅途
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.
大多数的加纳移民尝试从布基纳法索到尼日尔的阿加德兹市，然后再从利比亚去往欧洲。在那里，他们和来自非洲西部和其他地区的移民汇合，这些移民是为了逃离冲突和迫害。
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，他们挤在车队中超载的卡车上，但穿越撒哈拉沙漠直至利比亚边界附近的波尔克地区这段路途则需要步行。这可是一场生死考验，许多人死于极度疲惫和脱水。
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.
图姆回忆起漫天要价的人贩子，最让人难以忘怀的是许多尸体被遗弃在炎热的撒哈拉沙漠的场景。他叙述道：“有些靠在石头上，好像在睡觉，有些被沙子掩埋了”
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.”
图姆的三个同伴死于途中。他说：“当他们无法继续前行时，我们会尝试鼓励他们，但没一会儿我们就得放弃他们，因为如果掉队，很快就会死。死的都是我认识的人，我们一起从恩科兰扎来的。到了黎波里之后会我打电话通知他们的家人。”
Twum’s story is all too common in the Brong Ahafo Region, with echoes across Ghana and other sub-Saharan African countries.
图姆的故事在布朗阿哈福地区随处可见，回荡在加纳和非洲撒哈拉边境地区。
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.
根据国际移民组织（IOM）加纳办事处统计，在2011年利比亚危机和穆阿迈尔·卡扎菲政府瓦解中，利比亚境内超过18000名加纳移民被驱逐出境。然而事实上，回国人数可能更多，因为一些移民已经在危机加剧前先逃离了利比亚。
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.
国际移民组织（IOM）对加纳政府疏散难民的行动给予了援助，他们表示大多数遣返人员被送回了他们的家乡布朗阿哈福地区。
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.
对布朗阿哈福地区的许多家庭来说，在欧洲的亲戚不仅为他们带来了声望，还有汇款。加纳内政移民部部长沃尔特·科沃安那提说：“每个家庭都希望有亲戚在欧洲。”
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.”
在一些情况下，他补充到：“社区会给有亲戚在欧洲的人提供帮助，因为你们家一个在欧洲的亲戚都没有就会被人看不起。”
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.
当然还有一部分原因是人们期望从在欧洲的亲戚那里得到经济援助，这样可以提高家庭生活条件。据非洲发展银行2015年非洲经济展望报告，汇款额达640亿美元，是非洲外来资金最稳定和最重要的唯一来源。
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.”
但这份声望的表面下却隐藏着更大的国家发展问题。科沃安那提承认，就加纳而言，“贫穷是人们移民寻求财富的主要原因之一”
