Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
by Mauro Armanino
Niamey (Agenzia Fides) - Emmanuel, originally from Maryland County, Liberia, began his long journey when he was only 17 years old. It is 2008, during the first term of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to hold this position in a country devastated by years of civil war. Emmanuel leaves the port city of Harpour, also known as Cape Palmas, and heads to the Ivory Coast, settling in Tabou, a city of refuge for thousands of Liberians. After a couple of years, he finds himself in Zerekoré, Guinea, among thousands of other refugees. Here he survives as an informal money exchange agent with the help of an older brother. Friends and Internet surfing lead him, in 2012, to emigrate to Algeria, hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea, a symbolic border between two worlds, one of which Emmanuel wishes to leave behind. In Algeria, he earns enough money to attempt the crossing and travels to Morocco. He tries to leave Africa three times, but each time the Moroccan coast guard brings the boats back to shore. In the first two attempts he spends 500 euros, while in the last, in vain, he spends double. He continues to travel between Morocco and Algeria, working as a day laborer to raise the money necessary to pay for the trip.
We reach 2022. Emmanuel's life seems to settle in Algiers. Like many other black Africans, he is often called "camara" (companion) or "dog." One day, when entering a store to buy food, a police officer stops him. He is arrested, robbed and deported to Tamanrasset. There he shares the detention center with hundreds of other immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. After a few weeks, they are shipped and abandoned in the desert, near the border with Niger. After spending a week in Assamaka, a city of emigrants born from nothing, Emmanuel arrives in Agadez.
He spends a few months at this crucial crossroads of West and Central African migrations, and then arrives in the capital, Niamey, using improvised means. He has now been living for a couple of weeks with dozens of other migrants, not far from the building that once housed the Ministry of Justice. Emmanuel carries with him 33 years of loneliness and the hope of crossing the sea for the last time. (Agenzia Fides, 20/6/2024)
