By Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews
NAIROBI, 13. Maj 2010: War and poverty have and are forcing Somalis to carry out deadly voyages to South Africa in search of riches and peace. AfricaNews reporter Muhyadin Ahmed Roble who has gone through such a dangerous journey not to South Africa but to Kenya, now profiles the journey of a young Somali to South Africa.
No one knows the exact figure of migrants living in South Africa but the Institute of Race Relations believes that there are between 3 and 5 million – equivalent to the country’s total white population.
In 2004, the United Nations said 7.118 refugees and 3.893 asylum applications from Somali live in South Africa but the Somali community in South Africa has said that the number is five times more than originally stated.
On the way to SA
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimated the number of people leaving from Somalia and Ethiopia towards South Africa is between 17.000 and 20.000 people every year.
Abdifitah Mohamed, a 21 year old born in Mogadishu, is one of the many Somali migrants who reached South Africa in April. He had travelled from Somalia in 2007 and reached South Africa in 2010.
He was fleeing from the war and poverty in Somalia, where seven of his family members live. Those members of his family safely arrived in Nairobi in 2007 after three weeks trip and paying 350 US dollarto smugglers.
Mohamed’s family were poor as he was the oldest child and his mother helped him to complete his secondary school while his father was jobless.
He did not get a chance to get to university or even secure a job in the country, where most of the people are vulnerable for poverty, war and piracy. Then his family sent him to Kenya because of two reasons; to save his future and try to help back his family if he gets a job.
After his safe arrival in Nairobi in February 2007, Mohamed got a job after four months following assistance by the Somali community. He had been working until December 2009 and had earned $2500 which was enough to pay to smugglers to take him to South Africa.
“You cannot imagine how happy I was …even more than happy! “, Abdifitah Mohamed told AfricaNews. He said that he has been working since 2007 to get this money and this would determine his future and that of his family.
“I was on the moon because of happiness”, said Mohamed and added he thought that he had reached his goal.
Wicked trip
Mohamed joined a group of 106 Somalis, including five children aged 13 years old, two women and four old men aged a 60-year old in 10 February 2010, in a packed fishing boat on his journey to the rainbow nation from Kenya’s small town, Lunga Lunga, which is 20 km from the port city of Mombasa to the coast of Mozambique which has a border with Zimbabwe.
“It was a wicked, wicked journey and was horrified. I travelled in a fish boat from Kenya to Mozambique without food in nine days”, he told AfricaNews.
On arrival in Mozambique word spread that the agents who brought them to that country were arrested by police. Mohamed and his colleagues had to look for an alternative to get to South Africa.
After a very painful trip, they came to a coastal village in Mozambique but lost their bearing and headed to unknown direction.
The migrants with two elders of the residence walked for two days to reach the nearest town.
“On the way, we crossed three rivers, two of them we used a boat, another one swimming. Four of my colleagues aged between18-20 old died in the river”, Mohamed said.
“We departed from the rural area in Mozambique; leaving behind two old men who were sick. Nobody knows how they are now”, he added. This time, they came to the nearest town, and were arrested by police and put behind bars for 25 days.
“We were all weak and sick… the jail was our resting place and paradise after weeks of journey”, Mohamed said.
The police handed them over to UNHCR who took them to refugee camp located in Nampula the capital of the northern province of Mozambique.
Mohamed said that 850 Somalis, mostly women and children, live in the camp but he and some other migrants stayed there for only 15 days.
The smugglers came back to them and arranged to start another trip from Mozambique via Zimbabwe to South Africa.
“I and other 84 people travelled in an old truck from Mozambique to South Africa. They covered the truck, it was even difficult to breathe since no air entered from any outlet ”, he said.
“We were running out of water and food. People started getting sick. I suffered from diarrhoea and vomiting”, Mohamed said.
They got to South Africa after seven days and were arrested by the country’s police and kept in custody for two days. He then travelled to Johannesburg via Cape Town.
