Joel Savage, Modern Ghana, January 4, 2020

Gone are the days in the wake of the increasing need for students or scholars to enroll in educational institutions, including universities, to learn and explore other cultures, many African students through scholarships had the opportunity to study abroad.

Today, everything has changed. Through the issuing of visas by foreign embassies, the Mediterranean Sea and stowaway, many African illiterates, criminals, including armed robbers, have found their way into Europe.

Without any formal education or the desire to study, many quickly indulge in criminal activities in Europe.

In the past, the Dutch government has to deal with armed robbers terrorizing Amsterdam, the Belgian government has to fight Nigerian drugs and prostitution gangs in Antwerp, while Italy also faces high criminal activities by African immigrants from both Ghana and Nigeria.

Investigations often made by the European police reveal that the majority of the captured African criminals were already in the profession in Africa, before they made it to Europe, therefore, it is likely that they think Europe’s judiciary system is just as weak and corrupt as that of Africa.

It is only when they are easily captured before they see the difference between Africa’s judiciary system, the police and that of Europe.

On October 18, 2018, four Africans, including a Ghanaian, Salia Yusif, 33, gang-raped a 16-year-old girl, Desiree Mariottini, killed and abandoned in a building at San Lorenzo district in Rome.

The brutal murder of the young girl provoked many Italians throughout Italy, some demanding swift justice for the victim.

After the arrest, Salia Yusif, the Ghanaian, shocked the judge, the parents of the victim and those at the courtroom by accusing Desiree’s parents of not taking good care of their daughter.

According to him, “If the girl had been at home with her family that day, I would not be in prison.” In other words, Desiree’s parents failed to give their daughter proper care, the reason she met her fate.

To say something like that after committing such a crime even shows the impact of ignorance and illiteracy on many Africans roaming in Europe.

The senseless murder of Desiree triggered comments from many users on social networks against the Ghanaian accused of the murder and some asking if “he could speak like that in his country?”

That night, according to Salia Yusif’s lawyers, that murder could have been avoided if the parents had exercised “normal and appropriate parental functions over the minor,” insisting that they simply should have controlled the movements of the murdered 16-year-old girl.

According to the Italian police, Desiree that day remained for hours at the mercy of her torturers, including Salia Yusif, before she died, after being raped by the group. Along with Salia Yusif, the other three men accused of the rape and murder, are Mamadou Gara, Brian Minteh and Alinno Chima.

The day had started with the banners and posters for Desiree outside the Court of Rome. According to prosecutors, the sixteen-year-old was killed with violence by constricting of her arms and legs, however, the words of the Ghanaian, indeed break the heart of her family.

In the same year of 2018, on January 29, an 18-year-old girl was brutally murdered and her body was cut into pieces and the parts filled in her own two suitcases.

The Italian police arrested four Nigerians for that murder but only one Nigerian drug dealer, Innocent Oseghale, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Court of Assize of Macerata.

Since 2014, the European Union has been engaged in an intensifying discussion about migration. This is the result of an unprecedented increase in the number of refugees and other migrants entering Europe.

The influx of immigrants wouldn’t have been a big problem if the immigrants are willing to learn and integrate but the horrible crimes many often get involved are very disturbing.

Many Africans, including Ghanaians, are in prisons for serious offences. It’s time for Africans risking their lives on the Mediterranean sea to think twice. They may escape danger from the high seas but still may enter into prison for certain crimes.