country:guinea-bissau

  • No food, no water: African migrants recount terrifying Atlantic crossing

    Men rescued off Brazil after 35 days at sea tell of harrowing 3,000km journey on which some drank urine to survive.

    In the days after the food and water had run out, as the catamaran drifted helplessly in the Atlantic with a snapped mast and broken motor, there was nothing left to do but pray, said Muctarr Mansaray, 27.

    “I pray every day. I pray a lot at that particular moment. I don’t sleep at night,” he said.

    Mansaray and 24 other African migrants had set out from the African nation of Cape Verde in April, on what they were told by the two Brazilian crewmen would be a relatively quick and easy voyage to a new country where they hoped to find work.

    This weekend, they were rescued by fishermen 80 miles off the coast of Brazil, after an incredible 3,000km (1,864-mile) journey across the Atlantic.

    The men, from Senegal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau had been at sea for 35 days – the last few days without food and water.

    Details have now begun to emerge of the men’s terrifying and chaotic voyage in a 12-metre catamaran barely big enough for them to squeeze on. When food and water ran out, some even drank sea water and urine.

    “After 35 days of journey in these conditions it is really lucky that nobody died,” said Luis Almeida, head of the federal police’s immigration department in São Luís, the capital of Maranhão state.

    “There was not a cabin for all of them, so they were exposed to a lot of sun and solar radiation during these 35 days,” he said. The rescued men were disorientated, dehydrated and some had problems seeing after so long exposed to the glare of sun reflected on the waves.

    Almeida said the case was unprecedented: African stowaways have been found on cargo ships in Maranhão ports before, but this was the first time a boatload of migrants had arrived in the state. The two Brazilians also on the boat were arrested for promoting illegal immigrations.

    The journey began in the island nation of Cape Verde, 400 miles west of Senegal.

    Mansaray, a Muslim from Freetown in Sierra Leone, had moved there five years ago to study science and technology with hopes of becoming a teacher. He studied for two years but was struggling to pay his university fees and working as a cellphone repairman.

    “They called me the cellphone doctor,” he told the Guardian by phone from São Luís.

    A friend who is a student in São Paulo told him he could study for free in Brazil’s biggest city and would be able to send money home to his elderly parents and sister in Freetown. “I said, cool, that’s why I got that boat,” he said.

    He said he had been introduced to a Brazilian on the street and then paid $700 (£521) for what he was told would be a 22-day passage.

    He became scared when he saw the size of the vessel he was about to cross the Atlantic on.

    “I am the last to arrive, when I enter on the boat, a lot of guys, oh my God, is this going to be safe all of us?” he said. “How can I do this journey? Because I am already in, I cannot discourage other people, so I find courage and go.”
    ‘The motor broke, and the sail broke’

    Others had paid more on the promise that they would be given food, but within 10 days the food had run out, so the men survived on two biscuits or a few spoonfuls of food each day. One day, one man caught a fish with a rope.

    “We boiled a fish, and everybody eat,” Mansaray said.

    But the mast snapped when one of the boat’s crew was trying to tie it to the other side of the boat, he said, and the motor would not work because the crew had mixed kerosene and diesel. A storm came as a relief because at least there was rainwater to drink.

    Elhadji Mountakha Beye, 36, was hit on the head when the mast broke and has been left with a scar. The mechanic from Dakar in Senegal had previously lived in Cape Verde, and paid €1,000 (£877) for his passage in the hope of finding work in Brazil where he hoped to meet up with a Senegalese friend in São Paulo. “There is better work there than in Senegal,” he said.

    He described a hellish journey.

    “It was tiring, there was no food, the food ran out, the water ran out,” he said. “Just on that sea. The motor broke, and the sail broke. Now just wait for someone to help us.”

    Just as the situation was becoming dire, the men aboard the drifting vessel spotted a fishing boat and signalled that they were in distress. The fishermen, from nearby Ceará state, towed the catamaran to the nearby port of São José de Ribamar.

    “The next day someone would have died,” Moisés dos Santos, one of the fishermen, told reporters when the men landed. “They said they ate two biscuits a day. They even drank urine, that’s what they say, they told us. We felt very honoured to save the lives of a lot of people.”

    The men were met by a medical team from the Maranhão state government’s secretariat of human rights, taken to a health post for checks and then housed in a local gymnasium.

    “All of them said life was precarious in their origin countries and they all have relatives or people they know living in Brazil. They were looking for a better life and to work in Brazil,” said Jonata Galvão, the state’s adjunct secretary for human rights.

    Federal police said they were now evaluating a “migratory solution” for the men to stay in Brazil.

    “We are not criminals. We are hard-working guys. So I believe that the government will help us to do that,” Mantsaray said. “It is my dream, and I believe my dream will come true with the help of God, and I can support my family back home.”

    This story was amended on 23 May 2018 to correct the length of the journey across the Atlantic. It is 3,000km, not 3,000 miles.


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/22/african-migrant-brazil-boat-rescue-atlantic-crossing

    #parcours_migratoires #océan_atlantique #atlantique #Afrique #Afrique_de_l'Ouest #Brésil
    via @isskein

  • L’#Union_Africaine s’active pour un plan de rapatriement des migrants en #Libye

    L’ONU, l’Union Européenne et l’Union Africaine se sont données rendez-vous ce 04 novembre à Addis Abeba au siège de l’organisation panafricaine pour la mise en œuvre d’un plan de #rapatriement de migrants bloqués en Libye en partenariat avec l’Organisation Internationale pour les Migrations (l’#OIM).

    Il s’agira d’abord pour les organisations régionales et internationales de mettre en place « une #cellule_opérationnelle » qui coordonnera le rapatriement de 15.000. Ensuite, mobiliser le fonds pour la réussite de cette opération.

    A cet effet, le #Maroc a fait une promesse, celle de contribuer au transport des migrants et le #Rwanda d’accueillir 3000 qui ne veulent pas retourner dans leur pays d’origine.

    http://rjdh.org/ethiopie-lunion-africaine-sactive-pour-un-plan-de-rapatriement-des-migrants-en
    #UE #EU #ONU #OIM #IOM (tous complices !) #sommet #rencontre #plan #expulsions #Libye #asile #migrations #renvois #réfugiés #Sommet_UA-UE

    Et l’article parle de l’étonnement face à la vidéo de la CNN qui a montré les tortures perpétrées aux migrants en Libye :

    Le reportage de CNN sur la traite des migrants subsahariens et leur soumission à l’esclavage avaient indigné l’opinion africaine internationale. Après une mission de l’UA dans « l’enfer libyen » et le Sommet UA-UE, les responsables de l’organisation onusienne, européenne et africaine se réunissent pour mobiliser les moyens et réfléchir sur un plan de rapatriement des migrants en Libye.

    #hypocrisie, on le sait depuis des années !

    cc @reka @isskein

    • Et voilà le type de marchandage auquel il faudra s’attendre... Ici, un article publié dans le Jerusalem Post... et parle évidemment de renvois depuis #Israël vers le Rwanda... à prendre avec les pincettes... mais débat intéressant

      Rwanda says no to migrant deportation

      Rwanda recently declared that it is willing to host as many as 30,000 African migrants currently trapped in Libya and being sold openly in modern-day slave markets. A tiny, densely populated African country recovering from the trauma of genocide, Rwanda was the first country to offer asylum to these unfortunate victims of human traffickers.

      Contrary to reports in Israel that Israel had already signed a formal agreement with Rwanda, Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwaboo in an interview this week with Rwanda’s New Times noted that Rwanda and Israel are still negotiating the conditions for accepting Israel’s African asylum seekers.

      Mushikiwaboo made it clear that Rwanda would not accept forced migration from Israel. “We have had discussions with Israel on receiving some of the immigrants and asylum seekers from this part of Africa who are willing to come to Rwanda,” he noted. “If they are comfortable to come here, we would be willing to accommodate them.” Rwanda offered to host 10,000 African asylum seekers from Israel.

      http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Rwanda-says-no-to-migrant-deportation-515819

    • « Je ne voulais pas mourir » : ces migrants qui ont choisi de rentrer chez eux

      Ils sont trois. Trois parmi tant d’autres, plus de 300 au total. Issa, Mamadou et Abdou* viennent de Conakry, en Guinée, ont tenté leur chance pour passer en Europe via le Mali puis l’Algérie ou la Libye, avant de finalement renoncer et de rentrer chez eux, pour « ne pas mourir ». Depuis quelques jours, ils sont de retour à Agadez, le corps et l’esprit meurtri. Reportage.

      http://www.jeuneafrique.com/503012/societe/je-ne-voulais-pas-mourir-ces-migrants-qui-ont-choisi-de-rentrer-chez-e

    • One year of EU partnership with IOM: migrants protection and reintegration in Africa

      The objective was clear: to respond to the urgent protection needs and unacceptable loss of life of migrants along the Central Mediterranean migration route while addressing the challenges faced by returning migrants and their communities in countries of origin.

      Fourteen countries have been involved: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Libya. And so far, nearly 20 000 vulnerable migrants have been assisted through this initiative.

      “Libya… not easy to come and not easy to leave”, a group of fellow stranded Nigerians warned Debbie, probably too late.

      Debbie is one of the 15000 migrants that have been voluntarily returned to their countries thanks to the joint European Union and UN Migration agency’s effort launched a year ago to save lives and improve conditions for migrants along the migration routes and for those stranded in Libya.

      She dreamt of becoming a fashion designer and a lady from her church told her she could earn more money as a tailor in Libya than in Nigeria. So Debbie paid a smuggler to cross the desert. Many of her companions died along the route. When she finally got to Libya she was arrested at the hospital because she did not have travel documents. She was there to give birth to her twin babies and only one survived.

      Through the joint initiative, Debbie was offered a flight home to Nigeria, sewing machines and material to launch her fashion designer dream.

      https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/37353/one-year-eu-partnership-iom-migrants-protection-and-reintegration-africa
      #retour_volontaire

    • L’évacuation des migrants en Libye fait consensus, pas la facture

      Les pays africains et européens ont adopté une déclaration conjointe spéciale sur la Libye et affirmé vouloir rapatrier les migrants bloqués dans leurs pays d’origine. Mais la question de l’addition a soigneusement été évitée.


      http://www.euractiv.fr/section/migrations/news/levacuation-des-migrants-en-libye-fait-consensus-pas-la-facture
      #Sommet_UE-Afrique #rapatriement

    • Juste pour montrer jusqu’à quel point c’est hypocrite, voici une vidéo qui date de 2015 (et plus précisément, elle a été publiée le 15 septembre 2015) :
      Detained by Militias : Libya’s Migrant Trade (Part 1)

      In a desperate bid to seek a better life in Europe, thousands of refugees and migrants leave the shores of Libya and cross the perilous Mediterranean Sea every month. Over 2,000 people have died making the journey in 2015 alone. The routes to and journey through Libya are also dangerous, however, and since the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, the country has struggled to achieve and maintain stability. Porous desert borders, rival fighters, and weak governance have left much of Libya in complete chaos. With militias controlling large swathes of land, their attentions have turned to the people that cross their territories. The fighters assert they are bringing order to the country as they detain the refugees, yet these people’s lives have become valuable commodities to the militias as they try to solidify their positions in the country. VICE News secured exclusive access to a camp outside Tripoli, run by a militia that has seized hundreds of migrants. Food is scarce, dehydration and disease is rife, and control comes in the form of whips and warning shots. The militia claims to have the migrants’ interests at heart, but what emerges is a very different story. In part one of a two-part series, VICE News examines how Libya is struggling with the Mediterranean migrant crisis, where state-run detention centers are overcrowded and violent, and how government immigration controls are outsourced to militias, where they detain migrants en masse.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3f380cYlPM

    • Die Externalisierung der humanitären Grenze. Das Beispiel der ‚Unterstützung freiwilliger Rückkehr‘ durch die IOM in Marokko

      En prenant l’exemple du programme de l’aide au retour volontaire, cet article analyse les pratiques ambivalentes et les significations contradictoires de la gestion de la migration au-delà des frontières extérieures de l’Europe. La reconstitution de la mise en œuvre controversée de ce programme par l’Organisation Internationale pour la Migration (OIM) au Maroc permet de montrer le développement de frontières humanitaires anticipées. Le régime d’aide qui en résulte ne répond pas tant aux besoins des migrant.es vulnérables qu’à ceux de l’OIM elle-même, qui cherche à se positionner comme un acteur crédible méritant d’être subventionné dans le domaine concurrentiel en expansion de la politique migratoire. Dans le même temps, cette gestion de la migration au nom de l’humanitarisme contribue à (re)stabiliser le régime frontalier européen en crise et favorise sa consolidation le long des routes migratoires. Bien que ce programme soit présenté comme une action humanitaire apolitique pour le bien de migrant.es vulnérables, sa mise en œuvre au Maroc est non seulement le résultat, mais aussi l’objet de conflits politiques actuels autour des frontières extérieures de l’Europe.

      http://journals.openedition.org/trajectoires/2372

    • Thousands of migrants return home safely from Libya as part of UN-supported programme

      Since last November, 10,171 migrants have safely returned from Libya, the United Nations migration agency announced Tuesday, crediting the achievement to a scale up of its #Voluntary_Humanitarian_Return (#VHR) programme.


      https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/03/1004782

    • Nigeria–Libyen retour: Ein Flüchtling kehrt zurück

      Für den Traum von Europa hat der Anstreicher Isaac Nigeria verlassen. Nach höllischen Monaten in Libyen gibt er auf und kehrt, von Versprechungen der EU gelockt, in seine Heimat zurück. Wie erlebt er dort seine Ankunft?


      https://nzzas.nzz.ch/gesellschaft/nigeria-libyen-retour-wie-isaac-auszog-um-zurueckzukehren-ld.1415974?reduc
      #paywall

    • Archive 2017, pour compléter le fil de la discussion.
      Reçu avec ce commentaire de @pascaline :

      Le Rwanda dit non aux expulsions, pas non au fait d’accueillir des demandeurs d’asile, c’est pas pareil

      Et c’est en effet une différence importante. Merci @pascaline.

      Rwanda Offers to Host African Migrants Stranded in Libya

      In an unusual gesture that could partly reverse a more familiar northward odyssey toward Europe, Rwanda offered on Thursday to house or help repatriate some of the thousands of African migrants being held in Libya and reportedly auctioned there as slaves.

      A statement from the country’s Foreign Ministry said Rwanda was “horrified” that “African men women and children who were on the road to exile have been held and turned into slaves.”

      “Given Rwanda’s political philosophy and our own history, we cannot remain silent when human beings are being mistreated and auctioned off like cattle,” the statement said. The evocation of Rwanda’s history apparently referred to bloodletting in 1994 when more than 800,000 people perished in an ethnically driven genocide.

      “We may not be able to welcome everyone but our door is wide open,” the Foreign Ministry said.

      The statement did not say how many people might be taken in by Rwanda, a small, landlocked country of 12 million in east-central Africa that ranks as one of the continent’s most densely populated.
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      But Moussa Faki Mahamat, the newly appointed head of the African Union, the continent’s biggest representative body, said on Twitter that Rwanda had offered to resettle as many as 30,000 migrants.

      Mr. Mahamat said he was “deeply appreciative” of the offer.

      Libya has in recent years become a leading entrepôt for migrants from Africa seeking passage to Italy in vessels operated by smugglers. The migrants have long been known to live in squalid conditions as they wait to board ramshackle and unseaworthy vessels. Thousands have drowned when the boats sank or capsized. Many others have reached Italy or been rescued on the way.

      Since CNN broadcast footage of bidding and the sale of African migrants in Libya, an international outcry has gathered in volume.

      On Monday, António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, said he was horrified by the images.

      “Slavery has no place in our world, and these actions are among the most egregious abuses of human rights and may amount to crimes against humanity,” Mr. Guterres said in a statement.

      Mr. Guterres said the reported auction of slaves “also reminds us of the need to address migration flows in a comprehensive and humane manner,” including “enhanced international cooperation in cracking down on smugglers and traffickers and protecting the rights of victims.”

      Last weekend, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Libyan Embassy in Paris chanting, “Put an end to the slavery and concentration camps in Libya.”

      Many of the African migrants in Libya began their journeys in West Africa or the Horn of Africa to escape poverty and upheaval. According to the International Organization for Migration, almost 9,000 migrants have been helped to return to their home countries this year.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/world/africa/rwanda-libya-migrants.html

      –-------------

      Rwanda offers refuge to enslaved Libya migrants
      Rwanda has offered to give refuge to around 30,000 African migrants stuck in Libya often in enslaved conditions.

      It comes in the wake of a video, released by CNN last week, showing men being auctioned off as farm workers.

      “Given our own history... we cannot remain silent when human beings are being mistreated and auctioned off like cattle,” the foreign ministry said.

      Hundreds of thousands of Africans travel through Libya every year as they try to make their way to Europe.

      They are often held by smugglers and forced to work for little or no money.

      During Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu were massacred in 100 days while most countries did little to help.

      “Rwanda, like the rest of the world, was horrified by the images of the tragedy currently unfolding in Libya, where African men, women and children who were on the road to exile, have been held and turned into slaves,” the foreign ministry statement said.

      Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said Rwanda was a small country but it would find space.

      She told the pro-government New Times newspaper that Rwanda was in talks with African Union (AU) Commission to determine how to intervene and resettle them.

      “What I expect and know is that Rwandans will welcome these people. As Rwandans we are sensitive to people who are helpless and have no way of protecting themselves. It is something that is deep in ourselves, we take pride in human beings,” the paper quotes her as saying.

      The minister also said negotiations were also continuing with Israel about accommodating African migrants seeking asylum there.

      Last week, the AU expressed outrage after the footage emerged appearing to show slave markets in Libya.

      Youths from Niger and other sub-Saharan countries were seen being sold to buyers for about $400 (£300) at undisclosed locations in Libya.

      In April, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it had gathered evidence of slavery in Libya.

      Smugglers hold migrants for ransom and if their families could not pay, they were sold off at different prices depending on their qualifications, an IOM official in Libya said.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42095629

  • Gambians Return to Their Homeland With Hopes of Reform

    Thousands of Gambian refugees are returning from Senegal as the country’s new president pledges stability and reform. Exiled Gambian journalist Sanna Camara reports from the border region on the hopes of returning refugees.


    https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/02/01/gambians-return-to-their-homeland-with-hopes-of-reform

    #retour_au_pays #asile #migrations #réfugiés #réfugiés_gambiens #Gambie #Sénégal

  • The Truth About Child Trafficking in Senegal

    In July 2009, I was in Guinea-Bissau covering the presidential elections after the murder of president Nino Vieira when I first heard stories about Guinean children who were taken to Senegal to work and beg for Koranic teachers. Many of them disappeared while playing in remote areas; others were given by their parents after false promises made by the local marabouts—religious teachers or guardians.


    http://europe.newsweek.com/senegal-child-trafficking-koranic-boarding-school-daaras-427621#bigshot/50535

    #photographie #trafic_d'enfants #trafic_d'êtres_humains #Sénégal #traite
    cc @albertocampiphoto

  • Under the radar, yet Guinea Bissau’s #Sana_Na_N’Hada is one of Africa’s most important filmmakers today
    http://africasacountry.com/sana-na-nhada-guinea-bissaus-revolutionary-filmmaker-is-one-of-afri

    In a cinematic career spanning some four plus decades Sana Na N’Hada has borne witness to the best and the worst times in #Guinea-Bissau. He joined Amìlcar Cabral’s revolutionary army.....

    #AFRICA_IS_A_COUNTRY #FILM

  • A Conversation with Photographer #Juan_Orrantia about #Guinea-Bissau and his Search for #Amilcar_Cabral
    http://africasacountry.com/a-conversation-with-photographer-juan-orrantia-about-guinea-bissau-

    Technically speaking, #PHOTOGRAPHY is the process of capturing light. Compose the frame. Release the shutter. And let the light pour into the camera’s memory, whether a roll of film or a digital sensor. When the captured light is transformed into an image however, it has much to say. It speaks about the environment it once […]

    #Chris_Marker #Flora_Gomes #Holding_Amilcar #Salym_Fayad #Sans_Soleil

  • Guinea-Bissau, After Coup, Is Drug-Trafficking Haven - NYTimes.com
    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/world/africa/guinea-bissau-after-coup-is-drug-trafficking-haven.html?smid=tw-share

    BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau — When the army ousted the president here just months before his term was to expire, a thirst for power by the officer corps did not fully explain the offensive. But a sizable increase in drug trafficking in this troubled country since the military took over has raised suspicions that the president’s sudden removal was what amounted to a #cocaine coup.

    #guinée-bissau #drogue #coup_d'Etat