Crossing to Europe a deadly affair

Migrants share harrowing stories

Maria gave smugglers all her family savings and crossed three countries and the searing Libyan desert, but when she finally boarded a boat for Europe her dream was shattered.

She was 24 and pregnant with her second child when she left Liberia with her husband and their three-year-old son.

“The smugglers took all our money” – more than $2 150 (about R27490), she said. “We spent four days in the desert. People died of thirst and the sun in the back of the truck.”

They arrived on the beach at Sabrata, 70kms west of Libya’s capital Tripoli and boarded an inflatable boat after paying smugglers about 500 Libyan dinars(aroundR4 501)foreach family member.

But the subsequent voyage was short and ended abruptly.

Their flimsy craft was intercepted by the Libyan coastguard and they were escorted to a detention centre in Zawiya, a port town between Sabrata and Tripoli.

It was there that Maria finally gave birth.

Today, she is locked up with her baby and son, along with 20 other women and children.

Her husband is detained in a cramped cell nearby with dozens of other migrants.

Their story is similar to that of thousands of sub-Saharan migrants who make desperate attempts to reach Europe via war-torn Libya.

Smugglers operate openly in the chaos that followed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Moussa Ouatara, 29, headed to the North African country from his native Ivory Coast.

He had to pay $195 (R2 493) to reach the transit point of Agadez in Niger’s central desert, then a further $490 (R6 265) to reach Sabrata with a group of other Ivorians.

“There were deaths,” he said. “They died of hunger and thirst. There was no water or food.” After paying more money to cross the Mediterranean, his boat was intercepted by the Libyan coastguard, who took him to Zawiya.

Abu Bakr Mansary from Sierra Leone spent several months in the Libyan desert towns of Sebha and Gatroun, transit points for many clandestine migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

The 23-year-old said he had worked there to save up for his crossing attempt, but his journey ended when the inflatable boat suffered a puncture.

He said he clung on for 17 hours before being rescued by the coastguard. –