Gambian leader’s iron-fist rule as well as his failure to create anything meaningful for the youths have left majority of the country’s able-bodied youths to search for their dreams abroad. The backway, which has over and over proven to be a perilous journey of no return for many people, becomes the only viable option for Gambian youths. There is no clan, village, town or region in Yahya Jammeh’s Gambia that has not lost a youth to the backway. The backway has been so infectious that it reaps families apart couple with turning settlements into ghost towns. Despite the immense risk and costly nature, the backway will remain popular. It has created endless rifts within families. This deepens when the bakwayer gets kidnapped, disappeared or killed. Floodgates of blame open and never close. Families of missing Gambian backwayers live in daily doubts, not knowing whether to mourn their loved ones.
Reports have started emerging that some of the missing Gambian backwayers are still alive, although they are detained. The picture above, shot by a Gambian detainee in a Libyan prison, bears images of detained migrants. The shooter was detained after he had inquired about the whereabouts of some missing Gambian youths. He too became trapped and remained detained. This detention center is reported to be located in the outskirts of the capital Tripoli. It is a center where no detainee is allowed to leave. Who will bail out these stranded detainees?
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