Like many African countries, The Gambia has lost many of its citizens, mainly youths, on the dangerous seas between Spain and Morocco and despite the recurrence in grievous loss of lives, many are still willing to brave the precarious conditions to enter Europe, which African youths have for years looked on as the only solution.
It has been
reported last week that a total of 22 Gambian youths were intercepted in
The practice of embarking on perilous, mostly sea, voyages has in recent years been an all too common phenomenon that has taken its toll on life and limb of African youths who resolve to reach the European mainland by all means.
How sorrowful, considering the price of the misadventure. It is costing many a hope-starved African youth a great deal of money which they and their families have to raise through a variety of difficult means. The huge amounts involved in such perilous journeys would have helped many youths to establish small businesses if not a big one that would benefit not only them but the country at large.
Most
African youths attribute their extreme decision to the inability of their
respective countries to provide jobs or, when they could provide them, fail to
guarantee the kind of remuneration at least reasonably comparable with that
which can be earned in
Be that as
it may, the thing that our youths should understand about the dream of
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Henry David Thoreau.