A training scheme that equips young people with the skills they need to get a job at home is designed to deter them from the perilous crossing to Europe

For its size, the Gambia is experiencing a disproportionate number of people leaving the country. Its population is just under 2 million, yet over the past two years it has come fourth and fifth in the International Organisation for Migration’s league of the six main nationalities identified attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy.

Abubacarr Danjo tried several times to take the “back way” to Europe, as Gambians call it. “I spent three days on the boat. No matter whether you get there or not, you regret making the journey,” he says. “The conditions on the boat are terrible. You are packed like sardines, you have to piss where you sit, you vomit, and the sea water burns your skin. You make the journey all because of poverty.”

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Each of Danjo’s attempts ended with him being arrested at sea and deported. He has put these experiences to good use, however. Danjo now teaches bore-hole drilling for a training scheme that aims to deter young people from attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing by equipping them with the skills they need to get a job at home.

“Most of the youths here are illiterate and unemployed, and don’t have many skills,” he says. “They see their friends going the back way to Europe and sending money back, and they think they should do the same. But with the help of the project they learn skills to be self-sufficient. I’m a great example.”

The Livelihood Empowerment Agricultural Project (Leap), is run by the Wuli and Sandu Development Agency (Wasda) in partnership with the British NGO Concern Universal (CU), and supported by the UK’s Big Lottery Fund. It is based in the Gambia’s Upper River region (URR). This is the furthest district from the capital, Banjul, and the country’s poorest. Villages suffer from poor sanitation, and infant malnutrition is rife. Most people rely on subsistence farming, but food security has been affected by a series of crop failures in recent years.

“Climate change is making farming increasingly vulnerable to the extremes of flooding and drought,” says Ismaila Jarjou, a project coordinator for CU. Many of the young people who leave for Europe come from this region. In the main town, Basse, young people congregate outside stores, chatting in the 40C-plus heat under the shade of tin awnings.

“Poverty is very bad here. URR has the highest population of youths trying to migrate,” says Danjo. “Young men, the backbone of our society, are deserting our villages, we are losing our brothers. One of my friends died on the boat [in April].”

The Leap scheme is trying to reverse this trend by training young men and women over nine months in farming and horticulture, auto mechanics and crafts. As part of the scheme, the trainees also work in CU’s pioneering rice irrigation project , which helps farming collectives to pump water from the Gambia river, reducing food insecurity in the area.

“They learn these skills and how to develop business plans. The project will provide loans for startup equipment, such as a generator or welding tools, so they can establish their businesses,” says Kebba Sillah, Wasda project leader.

A total of 60 17- to 35-year-olds are on a three-year programme that began in 2012. It ends this December, and further funding is being sought.

“The main aim of the project is to engage youths to deter them from trying to migrate. We want them to stay in their environment. To have a 100% success rate is very difficult – we know of at least two trainees who travelled anyway – but we think the majority of graduates are getting income from their skills,” says Sillah.

He hammers home to the students his own experience of being paid a pittance as a labourer in Spain. “They [the young people] don’t know the reality of life in Europe. When I was in Spain, I travelled for hours every day to do tedious work. I wanted to get to the UK to study, but I wasn’t allowed so I decided it was best for me to come back to Gambia to be with my family,” says Sillah.

Ousman Jallow, a former Leap student, is now a welder, running workshops for the project. “After training I can make enough to feed my family and buy more materials,” he says. “Now that I’m in business, I am not thinking of the back way. It is better to have something here than to lose your life.”

But many more young people will need to be convinced of their prospects at home. Youth unemployment is at 38%, according to a 2014 UN Development Programme report, and rising inflation is pushing up the cost of basic foodstuffs. In the Gambia, those aged between 13 and 30 make up nearly 37% of the population.

“Now, a sack of rice costs more than 1,000 dalasi (£16), that’s half a month’s wages for many people,” says Mohammed, a security guard who works in Banjul. “The increase in food prices has pushed up the desperation to go.”

In a family-centred culture, the younger generation of Gambians feel a keen responsibility to contribute, yet often lack the skills and wherewithal to do so. And, with a growing number of peers having reached Europe, accounts on social media are a powerful lure.

“If you are in the city, you feel the pressure to send money back to family in the village,” says Buba Daffy, whose friend was rescued in July from a stranded boat off the coast of Libya by the Migrant Offshore Aid Station. Daffy, 26, sells horserides on the beach in Banjul. “I only make money during the tourist season – for six months of the year I’m unemployed, because there are no jobs. It is very hard here because your family think you are a big man if you are in the city. That’s why people go the back way, because they feel the pressure to provide for their families.”

A recent survey of 16- to 30-year-olds by the Gambian charity Be Inspired Internationally found that 65 out of 100 respondents claimed to know two or more friends or relatives who had travelled the back way. More than half (56) said unemployment is the major problem affecting young people.

Tackling youth unemployment is a priority for the Gambian government, and skills training and apprenticeship schemes are run through the National Youth Service Scheme. But Be Inspired’s research found many young people were unware of these programmes, or did not believe they were effective. The charity is bringing together advocates from a range of professions to raise awareness among secondary school pupils of career pathways and scholarships at home.

“We found that a lot of pupils leave high school without a good understanding of how to have a career,” says Abdou Manneh, a law graduate and Be Inspired’s founder.

“We also found that many youths were unaware of the government’s apprenticeship schemes. There needs to be more communication about the support that is available, so we are working with the government agencies on that. And there needs to be more discussion about what really happens to migrants in Europe. That is the elephant in the room.”