Greener Pastures on Home Turf

Every year, tens of thousands of West Africans cross the Sahara searching for a better life abroad. Many of these journeys are cut short as migrants become trapped in a spiral of false promises, hardship and abuse. Some of these migrants make it back home to tell their stories, hoping that other men and women wishing to migrate will learn from them. This is Augustine’s…

Augustine Blessing Eguvwese was born in Lagos, Nigeria. The first of five children, he obtained a master’s degree in mass communications from the University of Lagos before becoming a radio host at several local stations throughout the capital.

In 2015, the downturn in the country’s economy left thousands of Nigerians unemployed. Augustine was among the unlucky ones. A year later, at the age of 26, he decided to leave for Europe.

With the little money he had, he boarded a bus to Agadez towards Algeria.

“I just wanted to find greener pastures, something better, you understand? I wanted to earn enough money to jump start my radio career… In Algeria, I started teaching English and took up other jobs but was unable to sustain myself or send money to my family.”

During the three months he spent in Algeria, Augustine witnessed firsthand the discrimination that migrants were subject to. Dismayed, he began his way back home…

Being smuggled, he recounts, was the worst part of the journey — sharing the back of a pickup truck with 30 other migrants, only to be stranded in the desert in scorching temperatures.

“To get back, we walked through the desert for days… There were 14 of us, some got sick and so weak that they could not walk again. We tried hiding from the sun but there is no place to hide in the desert. We had no food, we had our first meal when we arrived at IOM’s transit centre in Arlit before we were transferred to Agadez.”

“During my journey I got the inspiration to start up an internet radio station. I met 5,000 people at the IOM transit centre in Agadez, I met people coming and going… People who were kidnapped, electrocuted and forced into prostitution, people whose brothers and loved ones were killed at their side…”

In Niger, he enrolled in one of the entrepreneurship classes that IOM offers to migrants at its transit centre. The class helped him learn how to set up a small business. When he finished, he was eager to get back to his mother, who had not heard from him since his departure.

According to Augustine, a large majority of migrants don’t know about the dangers that lie ahead when travelling via irregular routes and with the aid of smugglers. Upon his return, he knew he had to use his own experience to inform Nigerians about these dangers.

“I decided that as a journalist, if I went back to my country, I would start a campaign against irregular migration with the use of social media and all available online tools.”

So Amebo FM “Nigeria’s first online radio station” was born. Amebo aims to sensitize individuals and communities, both at home and overseas, to irregular migration and safer alternatives.

Augustine and his team are working to identify key drivers of migration, including unemployment. This has led to the development of skills-acquisition programmes and training for setting up small enterprises.

He wants to encourage people to ask questions before deciding whether to embark on a journey to Europe. What does a migrant face? Is it legal or illegal to get to Europe? He also refers them to organizations that offer reliable information about job offers abroad.

Augustine keeps himself busy. He has taken to other platforms to share his experience. At the 108th session of the IOM Council at the UN in Geneva, he addressed government representatives at a panel titled Migrant Voices alongside fellow returnee Fabiola das Neves Sfalcini from Brazil.

Augustine has found the opportunity to relaunch his career where he least expected…, back home. But he is aware of his relative privileged position as a graduate, and is convinced that education is a powerful tool to help people make the right choices.

“I believe that education is a powerful tool. It helps people make the right choices. If you don’t educate your people, you can never grow as a country. This is why people leave.”

This story was posted by Jorge Galindo, IOM public information officer in Geneva. Learn more about IOM’s assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) programme here.