Migrants returned from Libya say UN has 'forgotten' them

Appiah Stephen left Ghana to look for work in Europe after a mining company took over some of his farmland. The horrors of exploitation, kidnappings, detention and a dangerous sea crossing from Libya prevented him from reaching Europe. He was supported to return home but says he's now right now back where he started. We spoke to Appiah in Ghana as part of our series on X. An explanation of how we produced this interview can be found at the end.

Raphel Ahenu (BTS): Welcome. Could you start by telling us about yourself?

Appiah Stephen: My name is Appiah. I’m 39 and live with my wife and child.

I’m a farmer. I grew maize and vegetables until a mining company took over some of our land. It was hard to make money with the cropland we had left, so I tried rearing animals instead. But that ended in disaster. Many of the birds died from disease, and when I tried to sell the rest there was no money to be made. All the markets in the area are flooded with cheap, imported frozen chicken and turkey tail. It’s impossible for local farmers to compete.

I felt I had no other option but to start over somewhere else. I have always wanted to travel. My classmates in school used to call me the ‘British man’ because I would say I was going to live in London with the Queen and could do a good British accent. But as an adult my main hope was always to go to mainland Europe.

Raphel: How did you pay for your travel?

Appiah: I had no money after my crops failed and birds died. And the prices people offered for my farm equipment were so cheap that I may as well have given them away for free! Fortunately, when times were good, I supported my wife to start working as a seamstress and she saved some money from that. She lent me some money and I took out a loan to pay for the rest of the journey.

Raphel: Was your wife supportive of you leaving Ghana?

Appiah: She was very worried. There were a lot of campaigns against making these journeys at the time. There were billboards everywhere with images of people dying in the sea. It was on my mind as well. I kept asking myself, what if I don’t come back alive? But at that point I was so broken that travelling seemed like my only option.

I told my wife that if God wills it, I will make it there alive and be financially better off. And then maybe I can bring her and our son to live with me in Europe. I was aiming for Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain or Belgium.

Raphel: Why did you decide on those countries?

Apphiah: I felt as if Europe owes me money, because that’s where the cheap turkey tail and frozen chicken comes from. They’re not the whole problem, of course. Our government’s at fault for allowing it to flood the market, and ordinary Ghanaians are somewhat to blame for buying it. I can understand why they do it. Life is hard and there’s a lot of poverty here. People won’t buy my high-quality chickens if there is a cheaper option, even if they want to. But I still felt that Europe owed me money.

Raphel: So to get to Europe, you decided to first head towards Libya?

Appiah: Yes. I travelled through Niger with six other people. We were all relying on the same contact. The journey was very tough: we ran out of water and had to drink our own urine for two days. You don’t dare urinate in the sand when you don’t have water. We also had security problems on the way. People see travellers as easy targets and often try to take their money and possessions. But eventually, we managed to get to Libya and started making plans for the crossing from there.

I was scared to cross the sea, but I told myself it was better than the alternative.

Raphel: What was life like in Libya?

Appiah: I found work in construction, but it was a very bad experience. I didn’t own my time. I would start work at 5am and was often not permitted to eat a meal until 6pm. All in the name of working for money. Once, I was kidnapped with some other migrants and made to work for nearly two weeks at a building site. When we’d finished building the house, the people who kidnapped us dumped us back in the place we were staying. It was horrible.

Many migrants suffered the same fate. Some were not even let go afterwards. People are taken from place to place in rural areas. They’re used for work like animals. It is not our country – we can’t speak the language and we don’t know where we’ve been taken. What can we do?

Staying in Libya seemed even more dangerous than getting on a boat. I was scared when we finally found an opportunity to cross, but I told myself it was better than the alternative. And once I had agreed to the crossing, there was no way back.

Raphel: What happened after you got into the boat?

Appiah: We ran into problems about six hours after we set off. We were lost, and the waves were tossing us around. On the second day we were picked up by the Libyan coast guard and brought back to the shore.

They took us to a place called Janzour, where we were imprisoned for almost a year. We were beaten if we didn’t do what we were told, and the authorities made us work for our food. The situation was terrible.

The IOM and UN haven’t kept the promises they made. We thought they understood why we left the country, but they've forgotten us

Raphel: How did you escape detention in Janzour?

Appiah: We were very fortunate. One day, the guards came to ask for those of us from Ghana. They said leaders from our country had come to speak to us after hearing reports of Africans being enslaved in Libya. We were told that we would be given travel certificates and supported by the IOM if we wanted to return home. I accepted at once.

Raphel: What has life been like since you returned to Ghana?

Appiah: It has been tough. The Covid-19 pandemic started shortly after I got back, which made everything harder. I started farming again and am hoping that business will pick up. I am focusing on local crops, like okra, that can’t be grown so easily overseas. But farming is seasonal: we often stay hungry until harvest time. And I also still owe money to a lot of people.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations helped many of us to come back after suffering horrific abuses in Libya, and we thank them for assisting us.

But many of us feel that they have not been fair or honest with us. They haven’t kept the promises they made. We thought that they and the government understood why we had left the country, and would help us to resolve those issues. But they’re just helping people to come back to Ghana, nothing else. They’ve forgotten us.

Explore the series:

• Introduction: Priced out by imports, Ghana’s farmers risk death to work in Italy
• I left Ghana to farm in Italy. I was exploited in both places
• Migrants returned to Ghana say they can’t afford to stay
• Italian tomatoes ruined my business, so I went to farm in Italy
• Migrants accepted voluntary return to escape ‘torture’ of Libya jail
• Farmers swap poverty in Ghana for exploitation in Europe