by
Pamela Kerpius

Recorded:
7 September 2021

Published:
17 September 2021

Meet Alex.

28 years old and from Gambia.

To reach Europe he crossed six countries: The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Libya.

He left The Gambia in 2013 in a car to Senegal. He was dropped at the border then transferred to a taxi that took him to the capital, Dakar. He changed to another car and traveled through Senegal and into Mali, a journey that took about one day. There were checkpoints along the way where authorities would check for documents, though Alex had no ID with him.

He continued his travel by bus from Mali to Burkina Faso, which took about one day and some hours. He remained in Burkina for two days, in a garage that held a number of people, “many,” he said. He had enough money with him to make sure he had food and water.

He took a bus from Burkina Faso to Niger. He kept money hidden on his body. There were further checkpoints and if he didn’t hide the money it would be taken from him. He arrived in Niamey, Niger and stayed in a compound with over 100 people for two days.

“[I] start feeling pain,” Alex said, around the time he arrived in Agadez, Niger. He had fear. He was in hiding for a week.

Alex crossed the Sahara desert in the back of a pickup truck with more than 25 others, holding a stick planted on the truck bed’s base to keep steady. He left with water to drink, but it ran out. He refilled what he could at dirty wells along the way. The journey through the desert took a couple of weeks in total, because they would stop on occasion in hiding at different desert towns. Eventually when it was clear, they would move on. Some got very sick – from the poor water, from dehydration or exhaustion – but everyone survived.

He arrived in Gadron*, Libya and stayed for four or 5 days. He was loaded back into a car to Sabha, Libya, “a very bad place,” he said, but only passed through for a few hours.

His car stopped in Bani Waled, where he stayed for two days. It was too dangerous to go out on his own, so he paid people to buy food and water and bring it to him in hiding.

It was a four-passenger car with six or 7 people laying down, hidden that took him to Tripoli. The trip took one day, but they had to stop in order to avoid authorities.

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Alex stayed in Tripoli for two years, a time period he never expected to be so long. But he found work with a construction PVC manufacturing company that enabled him to live. He shared an apartment in the city with three other people, one was another Gambian, the others, two Senegalese. He felt safe until the fighting in the city started. That was when he got urgent word about the possibility to take the boat to Europe.

Alex crossed the Mediterranean Sea in a rubber dinghy at 2:00a.m. on 22 July 2016 with 161 people, including more than 20 women and over 16 children. “You don’t see nothing,” he said about being on the sea at night. There was no moon overhead. The water was calm. Around 8:00a.m. the dinghy was spotted by a French fishing boat that didn’t approach, but called for assistance.

He was rescued by the Guardia Costiera and spent two days aboard the ship, and landed in Calabria, a region in southwest Italy on 24 July 2016.

He is now living in Hardenberg, Netherlands, where we recorded this story on 7 September 2021.

Alex is an amazing human being.

* City name not verified