Sirajo, a young Catholic talks about his perilous journey to reach Europe. 

Sirajo’s story begins at the end of 2022 when he and some friends started their journey. First, they went to Mali, and then they headed towards Niger, stopping in Arlit. This town is located at the gates of the desert and its only resource is uranium, which lies beneath the sand. “It’s the last city where you have to pay to reach Algeria. Up until then, I was unaware of the dangers and didn’t encounter many problems. But everything changed in the desert,” he said. 

He recalls the five-hour journey through the desert in a pickup truck — two hundred macabre kilometres where clothes and bones littered the arid ground. “By the grace of God, we arrived in Algeria. The smugglers took everything from us; I didn’t have any money left. We had to stay and work to pay them back.”

In Tamanrasset, southern Algeria, he was able to finally get in touch with his parents, by creating a Facebook account. “My mother told me: ‘Do anything, but don’t cross the sea.'”

Then Sirajo, this time alone, headed to Oran, on Algeria’s northern coast, where he crossed paths with an Algerian from Nice. The latter hired him to renovate his apartment in Oran. He stayed there for two months.  

When he learned that a friend had reached Germany quickly by passing through Libya, he decided to travel there too, even though the country was torn apart by a savage civil war.

There, his hell began. “We walked for 10 hours to reach the first Libyan city. And there, it’s war, gunfire everywhere. In Tripoli, you see destroyed buildings like in a horror movie. I went straight to the seaside, where many people had been waiting for two months to be able to cross. I stayed in that camp for nearly a month until it was attacked.”

He then went to the city of Tripoli to work – for a while with a Chinese company – and to feed himself. There, gangs imprisoned him in a house with 500 other people. He was finally ‘rescued’ by smugglers, who kept him hostage for a few months, waiting indefinitely for the green light for the journey to Europe.

“In Tripoli, I encountered a smuggler. He made me a co-smuggler to help everyone who arrived on board. I found many passengers for about fifteen boats that boarded at 7:00 p.m. for a midnight crossing. A few people were missing, so I covered my head and took their place.”

The journey to Italy took one night. The boat arrived in Lampedusa the next day around 11:00 a.m.

“I stepped off the boat and jumped into the water with joy. After spending a few weeks in Lampedusa, we were set free on the island.

Sirajo was then transferred to Sicily and then to Milan. Thanks to a Gambian friend, he took the train to Munich, where there was a friend from the same village. With the help of Caritas, he was able to get a part-time job and attend school. He earned a diploma in the gardening sector.  

 A few months ago, he got married, and his wife is expecting a baby.  He started his own landscaping business. From desert to garden, Sarajo’s exodus has come to an end, and the darkest chapters of his story are behind him. (V.N.)