Meet Almameh
Almameh (Gambia) at Piazza Vittorio, Rome, Italy. 1 March 2019. © Pamela Kerpius/Migrants of the Mediterranean
by:
Pamela Kerpius
Recorded:
1 March 2019
Published:
2019
Revised:
1/13/25
Meet Almameh.
19 years old and from Gunjur, Gambia.
To reach Italy he crossed six countries: The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and the most dangerous of all, Libya.
His journey took over a year, departing Gambia on Friday, 25 September 2015.
He stopped in Burkina Faso for one month, then traveled to Naimey, Niger, then Agadez, Niger, where he remained for one month in search of work. He found construction work in the end, handling cinder blocks for employers in exchange for a fare to cross the desert.
Almameh crossed the Sahara desert in the back of a pickup truck with 25 people. Water ran out, but they found wells along the way to fetch more. He saw bodies discarded in the desert. He traveled across the Sahara for one week in total, and all in the group survived.
His first stop in Libya was Sabha, where after arriving, he went into the city in search of work but was captured by Arab men. He was held in detention for the entirety of his time in Saba, three months. It was akin to prison. He was beaten and tortured by electric shock, and told to call his family in The Gambia to pay for his release—but he had no one to call. Instead, in lieu of money he was held for slave labor.
He, among a group of other migrants, ultimately orchestrated an escape. When it was time, he ran. He spent the whole night running. The traffickers behind him were shooting. People scattered in the gunshots and he lost track of the others.
“Everybody is just thinking about themselves,” Almameh said about being in the fray of gunshots.
He spent a month in a camp in a small, unnamed city. Then moved onward again to another unknown town somewhere between Sabha and Tripoli.
He arrived in Tripoli where he met Mustapha for the first time, and stayed for three months. It was risky to go out for work. He was kidnapped and held for the full three months in the Tripoli city limits.
“Do or die. That is the option.
You break out of prison or you die.”
The story then was much the same as it was in Sabha. He was tortured by electric shock while his captors demanded ransom money from family he did not have. He escaped again, unsure of what would happen.
“Do or die. That is the option. You break out of prison or you die,” Almameh said.
More than 300 people were at the seaside camp of Zuwarah when he arrived. It was a risky period of existence. If you stay safe in the confines of the camp, there is no food or water to survive. On the other hand, if you leave to buy food or water, you risk being kidnapped by local Libyans.
Almameh crossed the Mediterranean Sea on 3 November 2016 in a rubber dinghy with 136 people, including 15 women, numerous children, and two babies, one two months old, the other 4 days old; also traveling together with Mustapha.
Almameh was among the youngest passengers, so to keep him safe, he was placed on the floor of the boat. But it couldn’t protect him from the water that slowly seeped in over the hours.
People were panicking. This group of passengers departed with a small supply of water, but it was not enough to serve everyone. In a moment of distress, another passenger threw it overboard to stop the fighting that was upsetting the balance of the boat.
Almameh saw an airplane go by. He saw a rescue boat too, but it missed them.
He was finally rescued by the Guardia Costiera, the Italian coast guard, and landed in Trapani, Italy, on 5 November 2016.
Almameh is an amazing human being.