How to avoid being a frustrated migrant – immigration expert shares advise

Ghanaian immigrants often find out too late that life is not as rosy in Europe as it is painted out to them.

Many set off with the high hopes of a better life outside as they chase the cliched ‘greener pastures.’

Rather than being useful in their host countries, they become economic refugees burdened with frustration and depression.

It is these ills of migration that a programme dubbed ‘Project Mobile’ was launched to cure.

To intensify sensitisation on illegal migration in Ghana, Project Mobile has been climaxed with a migration stakeholder conference in Accra.

The project dubbed “myth of better life in Europe” sought to demystify the allegory of a better life outside Ghana.

“This project aims at telling the untold stories of life in Europe,” the Project Lead, Felix Amoako Boampong, said.

Speaking at the conference, he  said the idea behind the project stemmed from personal experiences he encountered while learning in Germany

“While schooling in Germany I met people, who would have been better of living in their home countries struggling to have a decent life in Europe, teachers who have left their countries to wash bowls in Europe”

“This is what I call brain lost because their home countries have lost their contribution to its economy,” he said.

According to him, the project apart from sensitizing young people on illegal migration, also seek to develop and leverage existing programs to aid in reintegrating returnees.

Amoako Boampong said the project through organizing 16 seminars has been able to reach 116 young people.

“I have organised seminars on Kumasi and Accra but today we decided to bring together the major stakeholders like religious leaders, politicians, media and all who matters to deliberate on how to demystify the myth of better life in Europe” he added.

The Myth of Better Life in Europe is a collaborative project between Speech Forces Organization and Ghana Union Hamburg with support from the Centre for International Migration and Development.

It is the goal of the project implementors that, Ghanaians have accurate and sufficient information before embarking on a journey to Europe.

Thousands of Africans die trying to cross the Mediterranean on their way to Europe through another hazardous journey the Sahara desert.

In 2020, it was estimated that 77 migrants died while crossings the Mediterranean Sea. In 2019, the number of casualties was about 19,000.

However, the accurate number of deaths recorded in the Mediterranean Sea cannot be ascertained. Between 2014 and 2018, for instance, about 12,000 people who drowned were never found.