African odyssey: Death, deprivation, determination

Oct 21, 2009, 14:43 GMT

Fuenlabrada, Spain - Chinedu James Ezeh's relaxed manner and easy smile betray no hint of the ordeals that the 29-year-old immigrant endured to reach Spain.

A farmer's son, born near Enugu in south-eastern Nigeria, Chinedu sometimes tested the limits of human endurance during his passage to Europe. But it was not unlike the trials faced by tens of thousands of Africans who have left their homes to seek better lives in Spain, and untold thousands more across Europe.

As he told the German Press Agency dpa his story in Fuenlabrada near Madrid, Chinedu revisited some of the emotions - fear, courage and even gratitude - experienced during his 1999-2000 journey from one world to another.

After their father died, his brother paid for Chinedu's university studies, but after three years the family could no longer afford it.

Chinedu played professional football but made little. Unable to finish university, he decided to look for a better football team in Libya, taking a route through Niger.

'The desert is like the sea - there is no road, no map, no direction. There were dozens of us heading for Libya or Europe, squeezed into the back of a truck, in temperatures reaching 50 degrees (Celsius), with no food for days. I saw a man die,' Chinedu recalled.

'There was also another truck with 13 passengers, the driver of which got lost in the desert. They ran out of fuel and water. I heard that all the men died. The two women on board survived by drinking their own urine.'

After reaching southern Libya, Chinedu survived with the help of another Nigerian, whom he helped to wash cars in exchange for some money. Football eventually brought him to Medina team in Tripoli.

'I was paid very little and had reached a stage in life in which I no longer knew what fear was,' Chinedu said.

'I began thinking of leaving for Europe, which I envisioned as a place of opportunities - a place where one was given the chance to show what one was capable of, and to be rewarded for it.'

A diplomat from a West African country sold Chinedu and fellow migrants fake refugee passes. The group of 14 migrants came under gunfire on the Tunisian border but made it across with help from their paid guide, and trekked to Algeria.

'We were arrested, but our refugee passes protected us from getting beaten up by Algerian police, who let us go,' Chinedu said.

Another guide helped the group reach Morocco.

'We walked for nine days in mountainous terrain in the dark of the night. If we heard the slightest noise, we immediately lay down. It was like undergoing military training,' Chinedu said.

'My feet were bleeding. But if anyone was unable to go on, the guide did not wait for him. An older man was left behind. Another one of us also got tired of walking, and tried to jump on board a passing train: his hand missed a movement, and he crashed onto rocks. He died on the spot.'

'Fear invaded the group, and made some of the men think of turning back. But they would not have found their way back in the wilderness.'

The group, now about 40 migrants, finally reached a farm. The guide arranged for them to sleep with goats in their enclosure.

The guide later abandoned Chinedu and four of his comrades. After police were tipped off, they fled the farm and hid in a cave.

'The darkness in there was so intense - you never see such darkness in Europe. On the third day, we decided not to die in the cave. We went outside, joined hands, and prayed,' he said.

'We had no idea which direction to take. We simply followed the moon. On the third night, a man came to us in the desert. He gave us bread, honey and tea. We had not eaten for days and asked no questions.

'On the fourth day, we saw city lights in the distance.'

They stayed for a month in Nador, a Mediterranean port, sleeping under an olive tree and eating food given them by local Moroccans.

The nearby Spanish enclave of Melilla, Chinedu was told, was so tightly guarded that migrants had no chance of getting in. 'But I had learned,' he said, 'that if one is determined enough, one can do anything.'

The group spent more than a week outside Melilla, inspecting every inch of the border.

'We saw the barbed wire, and heard Spanish police dogs bark,' Chinedu said.

'We slept in a nearby forest, where we heard animals growl in the night. I was an experienced hunter and knew the cry of the python, but I had never heard animal sounds as terrifying as these. Maybe they were some kind of wild boars.'

The only way into Melilla was at the coast, which was not so well guarded because it topped steep rocks plunging straight into the sea.

'None of us could swim. But three of us risked it. We hung onto those rocks and moved slowly in the dark towards a spot where we could try to enter Melilla,' Chinedu said.

'At one point, as we were climbing, a huge wave swept over us. I held the head of my companion and saved his life.'

The men got to a place with no guards. They wrapped clothing around their hands and climbed a series of barbed-wire fences.

They almost got caught in the frontier zone but scrambled into a sewer pipe and crawled into urban Melilla.

'We came into an empty garden,' Chinedu remembered. 'Dawn was breaking. We sat down and rested. We were in Spain.'