![Babucar Njie, 25, Gambia
I left Gambia due to the conditions at home. I went from Senegal to Mali, then to Burkina Faso, then Niger.
From Niger some smugglers brought us to Algeria. There we were taken to a house and told we had to pay 15,000 in Gambian money [approx 300 euros]. They made us call our family to send the money. Some of my Gambian brothers they knew a way to escape so I followed them and we made it to Tamanrasset [in Algeria]. There we were kidnapped again, and again we had the same problem; they wanted money. This time we had no way to escape so my family had to pay.
They beat people if they don’t call their family. If your parents don’t pay they beat you and call them so they can hear the way you’re crying. After that, I was taken to Sabratah, in Libya: that place is more wicked than any other place. They didn’t even give us proper water to drink and the Libyans were rude. Sometimes they would go and drink [alcohol] and come and start beating everybody.
I was living in a connection house with two or three hundreds people. It was horrible, there was no window and we slept on the floor. I had to work to receive food, then my parents sent the money for the boat. One morning they said, “Your boat is ready.” When I saw it, it was a plastic boat and I thought, ‘I’m not getting in this,’ but there are guys with guns so you just go. There’s no way back. We were packed into it, the fuel was making everyone sick. The boat was going up and down some people were crying, at any minute we could have died.
For us Europe is better than everything. There is hope there, but I have a younger brother and if he wants to come this way I will tell him no. If I had known all I had to pass through I would have stayed in Gambia.](https://img.msf.org/AssetLink/20f4rm5ugup43riou0g8x5kcpv1nro3e.jpg "The Crossing 01")
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