Sudanese migrants in Morocco hope to make it to Europe after Libya ‘hell’

By Maria Traspaderne and Fatima Zohra Bouaziz

Oujda, Morocco, Oct 27 (EFE).- Amany is a 21-year-old migrant with a big dream. “Can you help me get to Spain to play soccer?” she asks.

It is dusk in the northeastern Moroccan city of Oujda near the Algerian border and Amany (a pseudonym she asked to use) is getting ready to spend the night in a makeshift shelter along with other 20 Sudanese migrants with whom she shared a years-long escape journey full of persecution and frustrated hopes.

Migrants in the shelter located near a train station live off begging, hoping to later make it to Europe by land or sea after they crossed 4,500 kilometers through Sudan, Egypt, and then Libya, where they experienced “hell” in the country’s detention centers.

Amany tells Efe she started her journey in 2017 and has since made four migration attempts. She paid 400 euros ($464) for each of the first three attempts but got detained by guards before the boat even left the shore.

During the fourth bid, Amany, who cannot swim, was on a boat that sank about 200 meters off the coast. She managed to make it to the shore thanks to one of her friends.

Amany was held for an overall period of seven months in Libyan detention camps, which have been repeatedly denounced by the United Nations for the abusive treatment migrants are subject to there.

Amany calls it “hell,” but Mounir who spent 25 days in a Sirte detention center gives more detail.

The 24-year-old says he and 12 others were crammed into a cell that measured just nine square meters.

“They threatened us with weapons and hit us on our behinds,” he adds.