Young Ghanaians risk all for "better" life
加纳年轻人不顾一切追求“更好的”生活
Some migrate within Africa while others take the risky route to Europe
BY EFAM AWO DOVI
一部分人移民至非洲内陆，另一部分人则走上通往欧洲的冒险旅途。
Every week, in the BrongAhafo 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的重要粮食产地之一。在这个地区每周都有许多车辆装载着18到40岁的男人。其中，大部分的年轻男人希望抵达欧洲，其他人则想去非洲更富裕的国家。无论最终目的地如何，他们有着相同的期盼：找一份好工作，让他们自己以及留在家乡的家人过上更好的生活。
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.
多年前，科菲·特武就走上了这样的旅途。当时他只有18岁。他早年丧父。于是，他的母亲—一个勉强能糊口的农民，成了家里唯一的经济来源。读完初中，特武就开始兜售山药去帮助他的母亲。但他们的生活条件仍在恶化。特武作为家里六个孩子中的第五个孩子，认识到必须去其他地方工作。
“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.
“我想去意大利，想帮助我的母亲，”特武在他的家乡，也就是加纳北部的恩科兰扎小镇，对《非洲振兴》杂志如此说道。
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年的时候，特武在兄弟的资助下，加入了一个由35个年轻人组成的团，踏上了穿过撒哈拉沙漠去往利比亚的旅程，在利比亚，他们将乘船去欧洲。
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，当他搭上驶离利比亚的拥挤的船只，第三次尝试穿过地中海区域的时候，他被捕了，并被驱逐回加纳。他空手而归。现在，三十多岁的特武是一个街头传教士，他告诉《非洲振兴》杂志，他仍希望将来能去欧洲，但这次要通过不同的途径。
A hazardous journey
一次危险的旅程
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.
大部分加纳移民都想通过利比亚到达欧洲。他们先穿过布基纳法索再到尼日尔的阿加德兹，最后在利比亚，他们会加入为逃避冲突和迫害的来自非洲西部或其他地区的人。
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.
在中间商的帮助下，他们坐在超载了的卡车车队里，部分路程步行，就这样穿越撒哈拉沙漠到达靠近利比亚边境的博尔库地区。那是一段冒着生命危险的经历。很多人精疲力竭而死或脱水而死。
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.
特武回想到人贩子们的敲诈勒索，还有炎热的撒哈拉沙漠上抛尸遍野的景象。“一些尸体靠在石头上，看起来就像是睡着了，而另一些埋在土里，”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.”
和他同行的人里有三个人死了。“他们走不动了。当这种情况发生的时候，我们试着去鼓励他们，但不久你就得离开他们，因为如果落后了，你会迷失方向，然后，你也很快就会死，”他说。“我认识这些人，我们从恩科兰扎开始就一起旅行。之后，我从黎波里打电话给他们的家人，告知他们死亡的消息。”
Twum’s story is all too common in the BrongAhafo Region, with echoes across Ghana and other sub-Saharan African countries.
特武的故事在布朗阿哈福地区十分普通，在整个加纳和撒哈拉沙漠以南的其他国家也有类似的事情。
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.
在2011年利比亚危机和阿迈尔·卡扎菲下台的时候，据加纳的国际移民组织（IOM）办事处统计，超过18000名加纳移民从利比亚撤离。然而，实际回国人员数可能更高，因为部分移民在危机加重前就已靠自己逃离利比亚。
The majority of the returnees were sent back to the BrongAhafo Region, from which they came, according to the IOM, which supported the Ghanaian government in evacuating its stranded nationals.
据国际移民组织所说，大部分的回国人员被遣送回他们的出发地—布朗阿哈福地区。该事件中，国际移民组织支持加纳政府撤离陷于困境的国民。
For many families in BrongAhafo, 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.
对于布朗阿哈福地区的许多家庭来说，有一个在欧洲的亲戚让他们有了名声以及获得汇款的希望。“每个家庭都希望有在欧洲的亲人，”加纳内政部的移民局局长沃尔特·卡奥-阿纳提说。
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.”
在有些情况下，他补充说，“社区会支持亲属离开，因为如果你家没有人去欧洲，你家就会受到鄙视。”
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.
回国家庭也有希望得到财政支持，这样有助于提高这些家庭的生活水平。非洲开发银行发布的2015年非洲经济展望报告显示，2015年达到640亿美元的汇款额依然是非洲外部资金中最稳定和最重要的单一来源。
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.”
但是，掩盖在人们所能感知的声望下的是更大的国家发展问题。卡奥-阿纳提承认说，就加纳而言，“贫困是人们移民寻求经济机会的主要原因之一。”
