Salif Tiendrébéogo left Burkina Faso in search of a better life. He spent five years travelling through seven countries. In the end, he lost all his money, his freedom, his migration status, and almost lost his life.
In 2014, Salif left Burkina Faso for Niger, hoping to make his way to Europe to escape the grinding poverty of his youth. His parents eked out a meager living by farming, but they made sure that he completed Qur’anic school.
After graduation, he had no clear work prospects. He’d heard stories of the money to be made abroad, and he decided that was the best way for him to support his parents.
‘My friends assured me that if I migrated, I would be able to take care of myself. Indeed, when your family relies on you and you don’t have an option, it’s not easy. That’s why I decided to leave,’ Salif said.
Harsh reality of migration
Salif never made it to Europe. First he went to neighbouring Niger, where life was no easier. After a few months, he moved to Mali, where he even took Malian nationality to brighten his chances. Later he was robbed, and lost everything. Fed up with life in Mali, he decided to travel to Algeria.
‘When I left Burkina Faso, I went to Niger. Then I moved to Mali, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and back to Algeria. I lived longer in Algeria,’ he said.
In Algeria, he took on any work he could find, just to secure some financial stability.
‘First, I worked as a farm labourer, bricklayer, then several others: as a scrap metal worker, a vegetable seller, a mason, and a plasterer,’ Salif said.
At his peak in Algeria, Salif became an employer. He was earning up to 250,000 FCFA ($440) a day. However, after five years in the country, he was arrested on immigration violations. He spent four months in prison, until Algerian authorities released and deported him along with several inmates. They were crammed into a vehicle and dumped in the desert along the border with Niger, with strict orders never to return to Algeria.
After his strength failed him, with no hope of surviving the long walk in the desert, Salif stayed back at one point, expecting to die like the others. However, luck shone on him, and he was picked from the desert by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN agency that sends teams to make routine checks in the desert to save migrants.
He was taken to a hospital in Agadez, Niger. Once he’d recovered, he was transferred to the IOM refugee camp in Niger.
‘I stayed at the IOM refugee camp for over six months before receiving travel documents and financial support to prepare for my return to Burkina Faso,’ he said.
Salif didn’t want to return home. He hoped to go back to his life in Algeria.
While at the refugee camp, he called his father, who thought he had died. He warned Salif never to return to Algeria, but to go back home to Burkina Faso.
‘He made it clear that if I went back, he would never forgive me. But I was angry with him because I was the only one who knew what I had lost in Algeria and what I wanted to get back. I didn’t want to go back to Burkina Faso without getting it all back. But I finally listened to my father and went back. But I wasn’t happy because I had nothing,’ he said.
When he arrived home, Salif was a shadow of himself. He struggled with trauma, loss, and reintegration.
‘I was just a wandering soul,’ he said. ‘I didn’t even have an identity card. I just had a pass. My parents did everything they could to look after me psychologically.’
Journey to redemption
IOM helped him settle back into life in Burkina Faso. They introduced him to the Ethical Fashion Initiative at the International Trade Centre. That’s how he learned about a training opportunity through Commerce et Artisanal pour le Bien-Etre Social (CABES – Trade and Crafts for Social Welfare).
CABES specializes in hand weaving, which Salif found interesting and registered for the vocational training.
‘At CABES, I received training in large loom weaving for three months and then worked for six months. I was paid 35,000 FCFA (about $60) per month. After that, we were paid according to the results of our work. I could earn more or less than 64,000 FCFA (about $110). It depends on the work that I do,’ he shared.
‘Before I left Burkina Faso, all I knew was agriculture, but now I also know how to weave. I know how to take a thread and turn it into a garment. I make money from it. Being back is very good compared to when I left.’
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Trade Centre.