They come from more than 20 countries,
drawn to Libya as the funnel to Europe.
Eritreans want to escape repression or
military service; Somalis flee Al-Shabaab
and clan warfare; Syrians have given up
hope of returning home. In villages in
Senegal and elsewhere across West Africa,
young men sell all they have in the hope of
a better life in Europe, perhaps hoping to
join a cousin or brother who made it.
Motivations among the tens of thousands
making the trek to the Mediterranean
coast are as many and varied as the
nationalities involved, according to
researchers and human rights groups. But
in 2014 more than 80% of them headed for
the Libyan coast as the easiest point of
embarkation.
From the Horn of Africa to the Atlantic,
from Syria and Gaza, these would-be
migrants travel well-established smuggling
routes. Along the way they must cross
deserts and mountains, risk kidnap or
robbery, are often cheated or left
stranded.
One African migrant reported surviving on
toothpaste for days. A teenage Somali who
made it to Malta told researchers that he
had warned other family members not to
come. "I tell them its 95% sure that you
will die," he said.
The International Organization for
Migration (IOM) has tracked the migrant
flows through North Africa for years.
Eritreans have long been prominent
among the travelers, escaping an
authoritarian government, poverty and
indefinite military service -- a land without
possibilities.
"Many conscripts are not demobilized from
the military as scheduled and some were
forced to serve indefinitely under threats
of detention, torture, or punishment of
their families," according to a report by
the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat
(RMMS) in Nairobi last year.
Push, pull factors
They travel to Sudan, so long as they can
avoid kidnap by tribes on the border, and
are handed from one group of smugglers
to the next in relay. One Eritrean woman
told the UN Refugee agency (UNHCR) this
month that she had paid $5,000 to reach
the Mediterranean.
Eritreans and Syrians made up half of the
migrant traffic to Europe last year,
according to Arezo Malakooti, director of
migration research at Altai Consulting and
author of one of the most detailed studies
of migration patterns. Malakooti has
recently visited seven countries, including
Libya, Tunisia and Morocco to update her
study.
The "push factor" is much greater than the
"pull" of Europe, she says. Upheavals and
instability across much of Africa and the
Middle East -- combined with the
perception that Libya's doors are open --
have led to a massive increase in the
numbers trying to reach Libya. "Worsening
repression in Eritrea" has been one factor,
she says -- while Eritreans already in
refugee camps in Sudan have decided to
make a dash for the Mediterranean.
One reason is that other routes -- through
Saudi Arabia and to Israel -- have become
more difficult: Israel has adopted a much
tougher approach on would-be Eritrean
migrants trying to enter the country
through the Sinai desert, including
detention, and Yemen's implosion has cut
off that conduit.
As one Eritrean told the humanitarian
journal IRIN last year: "People were
traveling to Israel because it was the only
way, and now they're traveling to Europe
because it's the only way."
Somalis, often seen as the third most
numerous nationality among migrants
headed to the Mediterranean, face a
perfect storm of crises.
"Extreme poverty; prolonged insecurity;
sexual violence and other serious human
rights violations; lack of access to basic
needs such as food, medical services,
healthcare and livelihoods" are all
contributory factors, says the RMMS.
West African exodus
The IOM told CNN it is seeing a spike in
would-be migrants from Senegal, Mali,
Guinea and Gambia in West Africa. Many
reason that Libya's chaos is an
opportunity: border posts are left
abandoned, the coastline unguarded. Most
West Africans make the journey for
economic reasons; the majority are single
men in their twenties.
Populations in the region are swelling but
farmland and economic security shrinking.
Often, say researchers, the oldest son
leaves to find work so he can remit funds
home -- perhaps misled by fables of
riches. Malakooti noted in a recent report
that "unrealistic expectations of their
migration is fueled by migrants in
destination who rarely send negative news
home because of the pressure on them to
succeed."
But West Africans who have sold livestock
or other possessions only to be caught or
stranded can face destitution when they
return home: 400 Senegalese were
recently repatriated from Libya by the Red
Cross and IOM.
Malians have the added incentive of the
recent conflict in which jihadist groups
seized nearly half the country before
French-led intervention pushed them back.
Joel Millman of the IOM says there's also
been an increase in the number of
Nigerian Christians following this route,
escaping the chaos and brutality inflicted
on their towns and villages by Boko
Haram.
Another disturbing phenomenon,
according to Malakooti, is the trafficking of
African women for prostitution to Italy
through Libya. While still a small fraction
of the overall migration, the number of
women smuggled for sexual exploitation in
Europe rose threefold in 2014, she says.
Hubs and Routes
A Geneva-based group, the Global
Initiative Against Transnational Organized
Crime, estimated last year that about half
of West African migrants pass through the
town of Agadez in northern Niger. A
crackdown in 2013 on organized convoys
leaving Agadez stemmed the flow for a
while, but gangs from the Toubou tribe,
which controls the cross-border trade,
developed new routes and raised their
prices.
A migrant might pay as much as $300 to
reach southern Libya in a truck or pick-up,
according to researchers. Reliable figures
on the numbers passing through Agadez
are difficult to come by, but the consensus
among experts is somewhere between
2,000 and 7,000 every month.
Other hubs include Khartoum in Sudan, a
way-station for migrants from East Africa,
and Tamanrasset in southern Algeria,
where a fake Malian passport aids
passage. Algeria has also been a
destination for Syrian refugees, but new
visa requirements have forced them to
seek other routes -- often through Turkey
and the Greek islands.
Hundreds of thousands of other migrants
have already been in Libya for years,
attracted to jobs as day laborers when
Moammar Gadhafi was in power. Now they
face violence, discrimination and religious
persecution -- and are unable even to
remit home what little they earn. So at
least some are embarking on a journey to
Europe they never intended to take.
Malakooti believes this is a major factor in
the rising numbers trying to reach Europe.
The recent murder of Egyptian and
Ethiopian Christians by ISIS's Libyan
affiliate may have hastened the departure
of some.
A similar dynamic applies to Syrian
refugees. "Initially, they remained in
Lebanon, Jordan and other neighboring
countries to wait out the conflict," says
Malakooti. Now they've given up, or the
resources to accommodate them have
evaporated -- and have decided to try to
reach Europe and start over.
Within Libya, the smugglers for the most
part appear to be small groups or
individuals rather than large networks,
according to human rights organizations.
They cluster in dusty towns such as Sabha
and Qatrun and use what are known as
'connection houses.'
ISIS impact
Those driving migrants to Tripoli may have
no connection with gangs at the coast.
Such a journey, across the desert to avoid
checkpoints, might cost a migrant $200: in
a failed state that sort of cash quickly
generates armed rivalries. Tribal feuds,
roaming militias and criminal gangs mean
migrants need the skills of a smuggler.
The arrival of the Islamic State in Iraq and
Syria (ISIS) in Libya has further
complicated passage; in January jihadists
killed 14 Libyan soldiers near Sabha.
Malakooti detects a changing pattern since
the Syrian conflict began. It has injected
more money into the smuggling business,
which has therefore become more
organized. The more reliable groups can
charge more; she says some migrants buy
a "package" from smugglers that includes
overland and sea travel.
Syrian migrants are relatively better off
than West Africans, and may pay more to
guarantee a place on the top deck of a
vessel. Africans are more often locked in
the hold and are more vulnerable if a
vessel sinks, or consigned to an inflatable
dinghy.
Fearing arrest, the smugglers rarely travel
on the boats themselves, instead giving a
compass or GPS device to the migrants,
who then set off with no navigational skills
and often no experience of the sea in
boats that should never have left port.
As Libya becomes more dangerous for
migrants, other countries on both sides of
the Mediterranean are looking on
anxiously. Some West Africans opt to
travel through Morocco -- even though the
chances of detection there are much
greater and the sea crossing to Spain very
difficult. "A migrant might need 50 or 60
attempts before making it to the Spanish
coast," says Malakooti.
Tunisia has massively increased security
along its eastern border with Libya; both
Algeria and Morocco have begun building
fences along their border -- against both
terrorism and clandestine migration. But
they may be little deterrent.
The Eritrean writer Abu Bakr Khaal made
the desperate voyage to and across the
Mediterranean himself. In his novel
"African Titanics," he describes the
"dangerous lure" of escape. Only too late
do the migrants discover a grim reality at
sea:
"'If God loved me he would not have
brought me here,' groaned one of the
passengers. Assured he had uttered the
most fitting farewell to life, he threw
himself into the sea. The boat moved
forward at the whim of the waves."
http://www.cnnmobile.com/latest/2015/04/21/why-thousands-risk-everything-to-get-to-europe?fullarticle=true

Too long

The story its interesting u would have shortened it
so that people go hear and understand.

Whao..."'If God loved me he would not have brought me here,' groaned one of the passengers. Assured he had uttered the most fitting farewell to life, he threw
himself into the sea. The boat moved forward at the whim of the waves.".... Frustration at its helm.

You just dey yarn dey go, no space, paragraph or whatsoever. Nice write up btw but not properly arranged...