In this episode YAIM members retrace their perilous backway journey towards Europe in 2016/2017, across West African borders into Libya, highlighting the systemic violence, corruption, and gendered abuse inherent in these routes.Trigger warning: the following content contains graphic descriptions of torture, sexual violence, and death. Beyond documenting the brutal conditions of Mitiga Prison and the exploitative “ghetto” system, the episode notes a significant pursuit of justice: two participants have recently submitted their applications to register as victims in the upcoming International Criminal Court case against El Hishri for
crimes against humanity committed at Mitiga.
Transcript of Episode 3: Journey
Footnotes by Viola Castellano
Intro
My name is Tijan Jerju, Fatou Cham, my name is Fatou Darboe, Fatou Bojang from Gambia, Lamin Kotta, my name is Saikou Tunkara.
Viola
I am Viola Castellano and this is Backway to Europe: Talking Borders and Migration with Gambians on the Move.
This podcast series is produced in collaboration with Gambian advocates and activists. It centers their analyses of the border regime through their direct experiences of “the backway”—the local term for the illegalized route to Europe. These experiences resonate with many who have attempted to reach Europe across West Africa and beyond.
In the next seven episodes, you’ll hear from members of Youth Against Irregular Migration (YAIM), an advocacy organization founded by young Gambians who met in a Libyan detention center. The topics and discussions emerged from years of collaboration and are rooted in their advocacy work. I use my research as an anthropologist working on border externalization to provide context and put my findings in dialogue with YAIM’s reflections.
In the previous episode we broke down the reasons behind the decision to leave and discussed how semesters, so those living abroad, are perceived in the Gambia. In this episode, We retrace the route to Europe, crossing border after border – until we arrive in Libya.
A quick note before we begin: this episode includes references to violence that some listeners may find distressing.
The backway stretches across thousands of kilometers. It starts with the very first borders Gambian youth must cross: Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
Even though all of these countries were part of ECOWAS—the Economic Community of West African States—which guarantees the right to move, reside, and do business within the region—young people suspected of heading to Europe are often stopped, singled out, and forced to pay bribes by border guards.
Saikou
There are many violence in this journey, you know, so for me I can say that it start from this Mali Senegal to Mali, because they are borders, if you reach their borders you have to pay 1000 CFA, the money that they are asking is more than 1000. There are other people that are using the road to go but you will not see they will stop those people to say that everyone are from the vehicle let’s go to this check room and everything but the migrants immediately that we arrive they will escort us. Each and everyone we have to come down from the vehicle and then they will take you to this place and then they have to do this in order for you to bring out money. So this is something that most of us migrants face and then if anyone here in this story could have relate with what I am really saying because this is actually the thing that is happening. And then perhaps it’s not like these smugglers that are doing this activity but the security personnel that are even working under that government doing this kind of police brutality to us.
Viola
In these years of research, I studied how the goal of achieving smoother movement of people within ECOWAS has often been hijacked. Not only by the national interests of specific ECOWAS countries, but also by Europe’s obsession with stopping people before they even reach Europe.
The European Union has offered economic incentives, along with so-called “capacity building” actions – things like providing technological infrastructure and police trainings to West African states, all meant to strengthen border control. As a result, stricter borders became a political priority in many countries that, at least formally, are committed to the ECOWAS free movement protocol[1].
But this shift has had heavy consequences. It has fueled more violent and corrupt behavior among border guards – whose salaries are often very low – and it has multiplied the risks for people who should have the right to move legitimately within the region.
In this context, smuggling and trafficking have flourished. People on the move are often forced into these circuits. One example is what happened to Saikou, before crossing from Mali to Burkina Faso. His Gambian documents had to be exchanged for papers of a different nationality, just to increase his chances of making it across the border.
Saikou
So Mali they will tell you that they will give you the other ID card because if you have a Gambia ID card, you will have a problem, so maybe they will give you the Guinea Konakri ID card or even Senegal ID card and that ID card, your photo will not be there and it’s not your name, they will bring the old, maybe the old man ID card, you know, which is, if it’s not your photos and then your name and those ID card, even the security those that are in Burkina and Mali there, if they saw those ID cards, it will not be a problem because what they are always asking or always looking for is for money, you know, because if you, if you pay the money, you know, you will go. So if we arrive at those checkpoints, they will call us, they will stop the car and tell us, all of us to get down, in French, I don’t know how to call, I forget how they, what they call it in, French, descendez, so they will tell us, you know, we all to come
down,and form a one line. They will call name by name, to come and pick your ID, you know, sometimes, you know, they can even call your name but you don’t know they are calling you because the name that arein ID, that is, that is not your name and you are not familiar with it. So it sometimes costs problem there, so if you go inside there, they will tell you to pay money if you don’t pay the money, you know, they will beat you and the car leave you there. Sometimes we even think that you know those conductors that are in the bus they are the one making problem or giving the information to the security guards there to tell them that they are migrants, those are people who are going to this backway and those things so that they can they can even charge us more money.[2]
You know so from Burkina there are one checkpoint in Burkina they call it canchari you know if you are you arrive at Kantchari[3] and then you didn’t pay pay the money so there is a big
problem there. They beat people there and they electrify them there you know so thoroughly you know it’s by force you have to pull out the money or you will not go, they will catch you there until your people send you money[4], so that you can pay their money and they left you whilst they the car already left you there so it’s another problem.
Viola
Along the Central Mediterranean Route, the reality for people on the move is brutal. Human rights organizations have documented how the vast majority experience torture or other inhumane treatment. According to a 2020 UNHCR report[5], most of this violence comes directly from security forces and border officials, while smugglers are responsible for about a third of the cases.
And it’s not just men. Women face the same forms of abuse, but on top of that, they are also systematically exposed to sexual violence[6].
Fatou Cham
When it comes to this journey, there’s no difference between how men and women are treated. The pain, the abuse—it’s the same. At border checkpoints, what men are forced to pay, women pay too. When men are electrocuted, so are women. Whatever brutality is used on men, it’s used on women as well. There’s no special treatment. The only thing that happens to women and not to men is that they’re often used for sex. But beyond that? Every other form of suffering—it’s shared..
Fatou Bojang
In that area, what I can tell you is—this is real. Sometimes, you’re forced to do things you never would, just to survive. Especially when it comes to border security. If they ask for money and you don’t have it, they might do things to you that clearly violate your human rights. These agents, they’re not there to protect you—they’re after their own interests. If you go to them and explain that you’re struggling, that you don’t have anything, they might turn around and tell you what they want from you instead, in exchange for help.
In those desperate moments, when you’re suffering, you might do things just to make it through—even if they go against your values. That’s why many women become victims. But I remember one time, in Tripoli, at a deportation camp. There was a Gambian woman there with us. One day, she just disappeared. When I asked around, they said she was taken by the Arabs. Why? No one could say for sure. That morning, everyone was asking where she went, but nobody really knew the truth
Viola
But also smugglers can be perpetrators of horrible violations and abuses, as in this episode that Tijan decided to share
Tijan
During my time of entering this Arab country, between Niger and Libya border, we met with some white Arabs, they just come and see us and then they say that we are burned because of our color, they treat us like slaves and then they will put their feet on top of us and then later on they leave us and we proceed.[7]
After proceeding to a place we call in the desert Sigidin, it is where we have problems with the smugglers who are smuggling us with the four wheel pick-up. We have one lady who was there and then before we reach to Sigidin, the driver wanted to have time with the lady and the lady said no and then there was one guy who was protecting that lady and then the Arab driver, the Libyan, said that okay, let’s proceed. Then we go where they normally take their fuel to full their vehicle and then he just speak with his colleague that I wanted to, I love this girl and I want to have time with her but there’s a guy who was trying to stop me and then they speak. By that time they are speaking Libyan’s language, whereas we don’t hear nothing about it and then they said Arkab means that climb up, climb up. We all climb up in the vehicle and then the drivers inside the desert and then they tell us to come down and we come down with the lady. The driver pointd the boy, he said that his colleague „is this boy who was stopping me not to have time with this lady“ and then they bring the boy in front and then he took the AK. He want to shoot the boy but the gun doesn’t operate and then they want to slaughter him and then the knife don’t cut the flesh of the boy and then one driver came and take his AK and they hit the boy on the back of his head and then the boy collapse, he lost counsciosness. They tied him, they pour fuel on him, that petrol, and then they set fire on him and then the boy was screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming until the boy die and then they ask us to bury the dead body and then we bury the dead body. Then they say that anyone who misbehave, we want this lady, before you guys reach your destination we, we the driver, we the smugglers, we have to have time with this lady and then the lady came out and said that I don’t want no one to die in the sake of me, let them do what they will feel like doing. Then they take that lady and then they later on they come and pick us and then we just proceed. So it’s lot of lot of difficulties, obstacle that we face on this journey
Viola
When Tijan first shared this story on the mic, I honestly hesitated. Part of me wondered if it was too raw, too brutal to include. I worried it might be too much for some listeners. But in our first collective edit, Tijan made it clear he wanted this story out there – and the others agreed. For them, it wasn’t about softening the truth. It was about telling it as it really is. Because on this journey, death is never far away. Traces of bodies are scattered across the landscape, a constant reminder for people on the move.
Tijan
During this passing though you will see dead bodies and then you will see some stones that put on the top of this data and then if we ask them they will say that those stones reference the dead bodies of people who die in the desert because when the wind come, if you don’t put the stone on top of the dead body, the wind will drive all the sands on top of that guy.
Viola
As we said, in the backway, women are particularly targeted by smugglers, traffickers and militias. For those who survived but were deported back, the suffering continues at home, as the violence they were subjected to doesn’t just scar them for life, but continue to hunt them and make a new life much more difficult to build
Fatou Cham
As a woman, even if you go through the back-way all the way to Tripoli and come back, your name is never the same. The stigma follows you. People attach a bad reputation to you, just because you made that journey. Even after returning home to The Gambia, it doesn’t end. One bad potato spoils the whole bag – they say. And because of that, everyone gets judged the same.
Personally, I’ve had people tell me, ‘You’ll never truly explain everything that happened on that journey.’ And maybe they’re right – some things, you just can’t put into words. But as a woman, the moment you take that route, people assume the worst. They say you must’ve done prostitution. That’s their conclusion. But in the end, what God knows is enough
Fatou Bojang
“Honestly, I’ve faced that same reputation. In The Gambia, if you’re a woman who went to Libya and didn’t have money to cross to Italy, people assume the worst. The agents in Libya – when they see a beautiful girl, they won’t leave you alone. They’ll ask you to stay with them, promising to help you cross. Many girls ended up pregnant. Some made it to Italy with their babies, others never got the chance.
When I returned, I was holding my friend’s baby, and people thought it was mine. My uncle had to explain it wasn’t. But that’s how it is – once you’ve been on that journey, people assume you were doing prostitution. What they don’t know is some women paid their way honestly. Others were taken advantage of because they had nothing. Even me, someone once said, ‘Even if something happened to you, you’d never say it.’ But not everyone’s story is the same – and not every woman’s journey should be judged the same.”
Viola
Libya is often the final stop in Africa before attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea. And just to get there, as we’ve already heard, people have to endure incredible hardship.
But Libya itself – especially since the NATO-backed war in 2011 and the political fallout that led to the civil war in 2014 – has become not just a transit point but one of the most dangerous places where people on the move can end up.
Lamin Kotta
okay I can test to that yeah since I enter in Libya there was a one small village, the village name is Qatrun that’s the first place that I stops when I was embarking in this journey back way so I was there like you know nine months. I was in that small village Qatrun but you know on my newly entering there I was I was going to this hard labor works so but sometimes I feel difficult you know. When I go to the work sometimes the Arab people will take you to work you know if you work until you get finished they will not pay you sometimes and sometimes they will give you food. If you ask them the money they tell you that okay I give you food already you know why are you asking me money I don’t have any money just find your way if not I will kill you or do disaster here
Viola
In Libya, unpaid and forced labor has become a common fate for so many people on the move. Stripped of rights – especially after 2011 – they’re left vulnerable to exploitation, just trying to survive and find a way forward.[8] Sometimes, though, work comes through their own communities in the diaspora. That’s what happened to Lamin. He managed to get a job as a waiter in a Nigerian restaurant.
Lamin
I started working with one of one Nigerian woman who was a lady you know who have a restaurant there you know used to buy this african food so I was working with the woman, I was doing cooking because I was very good in cooking especially Benachin. So you know I used to cook Benachin sometimes Domoda[9] so I was there with the human working but sometimes also you be there in that restaurant you will see this Arab asmas you know these small boys
Viola
“Asma boys,” is a term that many sub-Saharan migrants use to describe street gangs in Libya who target and harass them, building their business on their exploitation, forcing them to do unpaid work, drug dealing and prostitution or holding them for ransom.
Lamin Kotta
They come they will tell me that okay boy, we don’t have money you know give us money or else we do disaster her. So those little boy they will try to disturb me and you know
when they are coming in the woman that I’m working with he will go and hide because for her she’s very afraid about those boys so and I’m gonna be the only one to talk with them you know just to calm them down. You know when they start talking I tell them no don’t worry don’t worry you know I have food here they told me we don’t eat your food this nonsense food how can we eat this? You know they say a lot of rubbish words so but see I don’t care you know, they need money and I give them little money that we have.
Viola
But the violence comes also from the civilian population, which often has an hostile and xenophobic attitude towards people on the move. Lamin accidentally became the target of a Libyan man rage towards another Nigerian man he saw peeing on his gate and who he mistakenly identified as Lamin
Lamin Kotta
The Nigerian man was having these small locks and I was having this small lock[10] so the Arab man say oh I know where you stayed I will come and meet you there. So that’s
the time he get back to his compound, took his car with his AK and come to meet me in my restaurant why is I’m in the restaurant, I don’t know what is happening outside. I was there with the customers so you know as the people was sitting inside the restaurant some of them were sitting outside so he just come with this pickup he stop and then get there you know and started to drag his AK outside. So that’s where I see the man you know that this man doesn’t come here in peace so what I do is I try to escape, I try to jump behind and start running to go and hide that myself in my one of my friend. So I just come in the evening I asked the woman, she told me that, oh Lamin you are very very very lucky I tell her why, she tells me that if you don’t run this man will shoot you because you know why this man says that you go outside and and you urinate his main gate there, so you know when he meet you here he will kill you. I tell her that but I was here since the morning I don’t go outside she told me I’m even surprised about that, so what I do is because in Libya if you want to see proper you must have a Moudir[11]. An old man was there he was he’s our landlord so he’s our Moudir, I went there to explain this story to her and I tell him they want Arab man come to my restaurant and he wanted to kill me something like that whereby I did not do nothing. So he told me don’t worry let’s go there so I go with the man and they start talking to me, they are friends, so we tell him oh it’s not this boy he tell this boy would never do that but this boy is here now for many months he know the rules so he will not do those kind of things. So I escaped from the trap, also so I was there working working keeping money and I proceed to Tripoli.
In Tripoli I see a lot of human violence and because sometimes you know if you go out six o’clock you have to get back to your compound if not when these Arab people see you in the role they will shoot you or treat you bad there[12].
Viola
Once arrived in Tripoli, migrants live in so-called ghettos, places managed by the smuggling network where they wait to embark on the Mediterranean crossing
Tombong
A ghetto it’s just, like the agent that rent a house so he got migrants that want to go to Europe so they gather until they have the specific time, the specific amount, that they want to load their boats so that they can cross so most of the time the ghetto is where people gather[13]
Saikou
It’s not only where you have these ghettos, all these places you have ghettos you kno. So it’s the place where you can stay yto wait till you pay the money to go to your next destination. But you will see that there are some ghettos you know even you being staying there, you will pay some ghettos you will not pay.The agent will be responsible for it but some pay some ghettos they will ask you, everyone, each individual that are in there will pay something because it happened to us in in in Sabah. In Sabah every month you know we pay 10 dinar you know, each every individual every month you pay 10 dinner you know so we give that money to the our agent so the agent will pay back to the Arab man who owns the compound. Yeah but this this ghettos it’s not a good place to live you know because many many people are living there you know some is not a complete building[14]. Some ghettos you know they are they are comfortable but it’s very rare to have those to have those kind of ghettos, you know, because even there are the toilet you know because even especially in our ghetto it’s a very crowded ghetto. So it’s many agents you know that brought their people there, so our living there, some will sleep at the compound, our toilet it’s not it’s not good there you know so it’s not we have mattresses. there it’s just just blanket so it’s very hard to be, to live in that ghetto and if you don’t have money is a problem because it’s there everyone is living by your your pocket you know so you have to pay money you know and get what you want
Viola
Lamin, Saihou and Tijan were living in a ghetto in Gargaresh, an area that is routinely raided by police force in search of migrants, and this is also what happened to them.
They were the first days of January 2017, and they knew that another ghetto, the one of Colombia, was attacked by the police the day before and that many people were killed as a result of the raid. Some of the people who were living in Colombia sought shelter in Gargaresh, but the smugglers managing the ghetto were reluctant to host them, as they feared their presence would have caused another attack by the police.
Saikou
Yes, we were caught in Libya, Tripoli in 2017, the place where we called Gregaresh, Tripoli, you know, so by that time, you know, there was an attack in Colombia before us, so they killed many people there and later they announced that they will attack us also, Tripoli in Grigaresh, you know, where they did in January 4th. So they caught many people also in our prison, so they will come, you know, and ask you guys if you don’t open the gate, they will open fire on the gate.
Yes, you know, the weapon that they are using is this AK, AK-47 and this heavy gun called RPG[15], you know, so also many people have died in that day and many are also injured, you know.
What makes the attack very big you know to be serious because when these people come
to Colombia and they even saw that these black peoples they were the one selling drugs there, because the Arabs that are the one give the drugs to the black people to sell the drugs and even they give them the guns[16]. So this security personal guards when they came there they saw that these black people, some of the black peoples were having guns you know and they start to fire, so this make the things very tense you know so they kill a lot of black
peoples there. So the people that are in Colombia,most of them they want to come back to Gargaresh and so some of the the Arab peoples that own these ghettos, if they are not allowing for those people to enter because they were scared that if we accommodate them for in our house you know we can be attacked. So that was the difficult, so they announced again to tell them that they will come and attack Gargaresh also where we are. So the attack
was January, when they arrived there you know so they knocked the door and then we don’t open the door so they took the gun, the AK you know, to shoot the door until the door was break but the gun that they came with to operate this attack you know it was these heavy guns, the RPGs, you know, these machine guns, it seems like you are going to war. So they even kill many a lot of people there because if you want to escape they will shoot you, they were saying that these black people they are drug dealers, they are this and this and this. So while some of us, we are not even into drug in there you know so but for them they catch all of the blacks that they saw you know, to take them to the Mitiga.
Viola
In Tripoli, people on the move live inside a cruel paradox. Militias may force them – or co-opt them – into illegal activities like drug dealing or arms trafficking. But the truth is, it doesn’t matter whether someone is involved or not. All of them are criminalized as “illegal migrants.” Police raids strike the so-called ghettos under this pretext, and they arrive with brutal force, with deadly weapons. Death isn’t an exception – it’s an expected outcome. That’s what Saikou remembers from Colombia and Gargaresh. But the violence didn’t stop there. On the way to the prison of Mitiga, the roles flipped – this time, it was the police who came under attack.
Saikou
Because later, for us, because they are taking us from that place, where they guard us at that Chad place, you know, to take us to the Mitiga, so from there, the asmas, the boys in Libya, they call them asmas, they also come and attack the the police, because they don’t want police to take us to the prison, because why? That will affect their business, because they are smugglers, so they come and attack those police, you know, where many people also die, some escaped, some, you know, injured.
Viola
At one point, the Asma Boys attacked the Libyan police. Why? Because the police were cutting into their livelihood: the migrants they were exploiting.
It’s just one example of the kind of political chaos that has reigned – and continues to reign – in Libya. Migrants aren’t just caught in the middle; they’re central to multiple exploitative economies, whether controlled by street gangs or so-called official security forces.
After this fight, those left were brought then to Mitiga, an ordinary prison facility close to Tripoli condemned by human rights’ groups for the arbitrary detention, torture and abuse of political dissidents and people on the move.
Saikou
Mitiga is a prison, you know, where they kept many discriminants, drug dealers, you know, and also, you know, some people say that, you know, if the people that they want to sentence to death, because Libya, you know, if they have that law, you know, they have this sharia law to sentence, if you do something which is, you know, you need to be killed, you know, they will kill you.
Lamin Kotta
Yeah, I have something to explain about, you know, why we, they took us to Mitiga in my own observation, you know, what I see is like, you know, because the place that we were in Grigaras, called Colombia, you know, is a drug center, and it’s a place that, you know, the prostitution life is going on there.
So we understand. So they came their first time to arrest those people, those criminals that are selling drugs there, and they are doing this prostitution life. That was, that was the first attack that they came, but they didn’t come to arrest the migrants or something like that. They come to attack that place straight, because there are so many criminals down in Colombia. So the time that they attacked those people and killed a lot of people, and these African criminals that, you know, I can remember one Gambian boy was there, you know, I
will mention his name, you know, because you call it there, Tupac. So this boy was shot, that day, that first attack that they came in Grigaras, they killed the boy, and the boy was going with one Arab man, his name is Gansta, and the second man is Tupac, Libya, you understand. Then we have Tupac, Libya, and Tupac, Gambia, you understand. So all these people were there. It’s only Gansta that didn’t die on that first attack. So in my observation, I was, I think like the why they took us to Mitiga is that, because Mitiga is a big prison, and it is a prison that, you know, they have this Sharia law. They are very strict when it comes to their law. So they took us there to identify the criminals that are selling drugs in Grigaras. Because I can remember, since we go to Mitiga, you know, they align us like this, so we are following each other like this. So there are one prison man there. The man is, is in, is living in
Grigaras, Colombia. He know a lot of Gambians on the Grigara and Darasen in these drugs. So they took that man out of the prison and bring him, and the man’s legs were cut. I think it’s the Sharia law why they cut the leg. So he was having these two sticks. So he came out. So he started to mention people that are selling drugs in that Grigaras. So that’s the time we make a line up. So you will come and he look you like this and say, oh, I don’t know this guy. You, you go to innocent side. So if he say that I know this guy, he sell a drug, then you stay in Mitiga prison. So that’s why I can remember one of our boys, his name is Mohammed. He also, he, they arrested him there, and the man was very, very innocent. He don’t even smoke cigarette, but the, this man said that he’s a drug dealer and he used to sell drugs. So they arrested him there and he’s an innocent guy. So a lot of people were innocent and some people were arrested there. So when it comes to the woman case, why, I think why they leave them there is because of their, there was very hungry about the situation in Colombia. Yes. So since, you know, they try to, you know, identify all the criminals, then for us, they took us to the prison. The next day, we start moving to the detention center.
Viola
In Saikou’s case, and for the other men in the group, Mitiga ended up being used as a kind of sorting center—though the process was anything but fair, as Lamin’s story shows. Once they were recognized as innocent, they were moved on to a migrant detention center. We’ll come back to that in the next episode. But for the two Fatous and the other women caught in the same kind of raid, the story was different. They remained in Mitiga for three months.
Fatou Cham
Yes, also, the police came to arrest us, so after that, after then, they put us in prison, we are the same prison before with the boys, Mitiga, where we call Mitiga, but the boys left us there. We spent there three months, four days, after that, they took us there to the detention center, so we are there for one month, some days, after then we came back in Gambia here
Saikou
You know, the case is, because even the, the boys, like Lamin said, you know, so some of
them are dealing with this drug, deal drugs, but not everyone, you know, because in our areas there is not a drug center. It’s just Columbia and also, you know, in the women’s, them, you know, some of, some of them, you know, they are doing these prostitute things in, in, in Libya, but not all of them, you know, it’s just some. So that also can be the case because the time they come, those connections that the prostitute, the prostitute, because they are also, they used to sell drugs, alcohols and Libya, you know, they didn’t even allow the alcohol there to sell it. Alcohols, you know, these drugs, thermador, many kind of drugs, drug houses, they used to sell it in the, in the prison there, in the, the connection there. Many people will also go there, not for the women’s, but also for the drugs. So that is the reason why the women’s have problems because the first attack in Columbia, that the many women’s, you know, run out from Columbia to come to Gargaresh. But these Arab peoples who own these fires, you know, telling us that let us not welcome these women’s because they are, these police are following the, the, the gars, you know. So which was very difficult on them.
Viola
We can’t say for certain why they were kept in Mitiga for three months. Maybe, as Saikou suggests, women caught in Colombia were immediately criminalized. Or maybe it was just the arbitrary, random violence of the Libyan state, which so often weighs heaviest on migrant women. I have my own theory about why their transfer to a detention center was delayed, and I’ll come back to that in the next episode. For now, what matters is to understand the living conditions inside Mitiga.
Saikou
In Mitiga they are where they search us you know they took the our belongings the money you know so the jewellies that I said that we have they took all of those things you know so and then they put us in in one cell. There that time the we were in the cold season, you know that time it was freezing, you know so they remove our clothes you know our clothes so we were sitting at that cold. So the whole day they did not give us food water it was very tough day you know, so up to the the night time they bring one kind of food we even don’t know that it just like this soup, and with bread we most of us we don’t eat it you just eat that small piece of bread that they give us. Because that soup we don’t know it some of some of us were saying that we even don’t know if they poison it or what so ever so we don’t we did not eat those they are there. So the following morning you know so it’s the time they took us from that Mitiga to the detention center and in Tarik Al Sikka.
So the time they are taking us, they were beating us, just to tell us go and enter the the car they were not doing that they have these bastons you know to flock us you know to beat us to enter the the car.
Fatou Cham
So but first we are there for three months, four days, so after that three months, four days, they took us there and took us to the detention center. In that place we don’t have enough space to lay down, so we are sitting for two months, you cannot sleep, you cannot do nothing. Even if you want to use yourself, there are some people inside the toilet there, because at that room is many people there, so you cannot sleep, you cannot do nothing, if you try sitting, you will stand up. So if you stand up also, people will take your place, you cannot even sit again, you will stand until someone also move to the toilet or somewhere else in the prison there, so you can have an opportunity to sit, but if not, you will stand full day, you cannot have enough space to sit, so the place was very horrible.
Yeah, sometimes when we make some noise, they will come there to tell us to sort of, if not, we will stay there until we die, so they bring us to the desert, but that’s the thing.
Fatou Bojang
When we were caught, an Arab woman stripped us down, leaving us completely naked, just as we came into the world. Even if you had your hair braided, she would undo it to screen you. She checked everyone thoroughly.Any silver chains or bangles you had would be taken from you.
At first, when we were entering, I didn’t understand what was happening. I wondered to myself, “Are they going to kill them?” But then one woman went in and came out, and another woman followed, which made me realize that what I had feared was not the case.
After the screening, they took us away, but that day, there was no food or water. I tried to beg an elderly Arab man for water due to hunger and thirst, but everyone discouraged me from doing so. I insisted, as I couldn’t bear it any longer. To my surprise, when I begged him, he gave me water, and after drinking, I shared it with the others.
When the prison doors opened, the number of people inside was overwhelming, and everyone seemed scared. I fainted before we even entered the prison.
Viola
And this is where our episode ends: Mitiga Prison. All of them were detained there arbitrarily. But while the men were released after just a couple of nights, the women endured three long months[17]. No trial. No clear accusation.
Then, on January 21st, 2025, while I was editing this very episode, news broke: Osama Najim, also known as Almasri – the director of Mitiga Prison – was arrested in Italy. The arrest was based on an International Criminal Court warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. That warrant was issued after thousands of testimonies from survivors exposed the horrific abuses inside the prison.
But a dozen hours after the arrest, Almasry was already in Libya, repatriated with a government aircraft as the Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio had not validated the arrest. Human rights organizations claimed this to be a deliberate move because Almasri has a key role in stopping people on the move from reaching Italian shores, and also because he could expose unlawful details about the Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding, signed in 2017 and renewed automatically every 3 years until today. Now, the ICC is investigating Italy for its role in what may amount to the obstruction of justice.[18]
In our next episode, we’ll take you inside thedetention center OF Tariq al-Sikka, designated in the memorandum as one of Libya’s “official” Reception Facility for Migrants. We’ll look even more closely at what role Italy – and the EU – play in supporting this carceral infrastructure.
This podcast series is made possible thanks to the participation of Fatou Bojang, LaminBojang, Fatou Cham, Madou Cissey, Fatoumata Darboe, Tijan Jerju, Lamin Kotta,Tombong Kuyate, Saikou Tunkara. It has been funded by the German Research Foundation and the Outreach Program of the University of Bayreuth. Editing and storytelling codevelopment by Daniele Lucchini and sound design by Ismael Astri Lo and Daniele Lucchini. Conceptual guidance from Ian McCook. The voices in English when Fatou Bojang and Fatou Cham speak in mandinka are those of Samira Marty and Julia Leman. We warmly thank all colleagues and friends whose invaluable advice helped shape this series. Thank you for listening – we hope you’ll continue the journey with us.
[1] For reference (open access) see Arhin-Sam, K., Bisong, A., Jegen, L., Mounkaila, H., & Zanker, F. (2022). The (in) formality of mobility in the ECOWAS region: The paradoxes of free movement. South African Journal of International Affairs, 29(2), 187-205.
[2] I was told by an EU official that indeed Frontex is actively training the Gambian Immigration department on how to profile potential migrants. For a broader reference see Carlotti, S. (2021). Behind the curtain of the border spectacle: Introducing ‘illegal’movement and racialized profiling in the West African region. Social Sciences, 10(4), 139.
[3] On the Kantchari borderland and its border violence, see Donko, K., Doevenspeck, M., & Beisel, U. (2022). Migration control, the local economy and violence in the Burkina Faso and Niger borderland. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 37(2), 235-251.
[4] To call relatives back in the country of origin that could send money to overcome (il)legal violence and obstructions along the journey is a consolidated coping mechanism among people on the move.
[5] Available here: https://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/thousands-refugees-and-migrants-suffer-extreme-rights-abuses-journeys-africas
[6] On gendered violence along the Central Mediterranean Route see Gerard, A., & Pickering, S. (2014). Gender, securitization and transit: Refugee women and the journey to the EU. Journal of Refugee Studies, 27(3), 338-359.
[7] Tijan refers here with white arabs to people living in North African countries. On how EU border externalisation reinforced racist atttitudes in North Africa see Menin, L. (2024). “Anti-black racism” as a slavery’s afterlife? Sub-Saharan African migrants in the marginalized neighbourhoods of Rabat. Anuac. Rivista della Società italiana di antropologia culturale, (13 (2)), 1-23.
[8] A very recent UN report attests forced labour is still widely practice in Libya in regards of migrants: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/02/migrants-libya-victims-violent-business-model-systemic-violations-and-abuses
[9] Both Benachin and Domoda (rice with fish/meat) are popular Gambian dishes, similar to others that can be found also in the broader Mande region.
[10] Dreadlocks
[11] In Libya, “moudir” (مدير) means manager, director, or boss
[12] On the widespread violence in Libya, see also the report published by Refugees in Libya, Niger and Tunisia in 2025, collecting thousands of testimonies from people on the move: https://www.refugeesinlibya.org/book-of-shame
[13] For an ethnographic investigation of migrants life while waiting in ghettos see Achtnich, M. (2021). Bordering practices: Migrants, mobility, and affect in Libya. American Ethnologist, 48(3), 314-326.
[14] Many ghettos are in unfinished or partly destroyed buildings, that abound in Tripoli especially after the 2011 war.
[15] The RPG-7 is a Soviet-designed, shoulder-fired, reusable rocket-propelled grenade launcher, acting primarily as an anti-tank weapon. That means that according to what Saikou recounts in anti-migrants raids by the Libyan security forces grenades were used towards the civilian population.
[16] On the coercive involvement of people on the move intoo criminal activities by traffickers, smugglers and militiaes see Kuschminder, K., & Triandafyllidou, A. (2020). Smuggling, trafficking, and extortion: New conceptual and policy challenges on the Libyan route to Europe. Antipode, 52(1), 206-226.
[17] At the time of the editing (2024) and recording (2023) of the podcast, I could not imagine that in December 2025, after talking with a lawyer at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, two of the podcast participants which names we prefer not to disclose for now would have been enabled to register as victims of the Mitiga Senior Officer Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, for the case against him by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. El Hishri was arrested on the 1st of December by German authorities following the ICC warrant towards him as he travelled in Germany, and once I knew ECCHR was looking for victims to register, I immediately contacted YAIM and the two members deposited their testimony as victims in a hectic and difficult three-hours call with the ECCHR lawyer Allison West and me. The ICC will confirm if their testimonies will be taken in charge by the prosecutor by end of March 2026. If that will happen and the prosecutor will win, they will be entitled to economic and sociopsychological and health-related reparation. See ICC page of the case: https://www.icc-cpi.int/libya/el-hishri#:~:text=Arrest%20warrant%20issued%20on%2010,War%20crimes%3A%20cruel
[18] See ICC page: https://www.icc-cpi.int/court-record/icc-01/11-162
llustration by Daniele Castellano, suggestion of scene depicted:YAIM
Abstract: Backway to Europe is a podcast series produced in collaboration with Gambian advocates and activists. It centers their analyses of the border regime through their direct experiences of “the backway” — the local term for the illegalized route to Europe. These experiences resonate with many who have attempted to reach Europe across West Africa and beyond. Episode 1 begins where the story itself begins: with the hyper-restrictive European visa system for Gambian nationals that renders the backway the only viable option for many. It explains why obtaining a visa is almost impossible and sets the stage for later episodes, which show how European influence on Gambian national politics operates through global and historically layered inequalities that perpetuate neocolonial dynamics. The second episode explores the material and symbolic motivations for Gambian youth choosing the backway to Europe, contrasting the modern, individualized pressure to provide for family through remittances with the more communal and respected social status of “semesters” (emigrants) from previous generations. The third episode discusses how YAIM members retrace their perilous backway journey towards Europe in 2016/2017, across West African borders into Libya, highlighting the systemic violence, corruption, and gendered abuse inherent in these routes.
