Three Gambian teenage migrants, who are currently in Algeria en route to Europe, have explained the “unbearable economic hardship” forcing them to leave The Gambia. 

The teenagers – aged between 14-19 and preferred not to be named – said there’s no hope for them in the country and that young Gambians from poor and underprivileged families are suffering the most. 

They are currently in the North African country after travelling for months by road as they wait for an opportunity to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. 

And life has not been easy for them there following a rise in anti-migrant sentiment and attack. 

They are forced to sleep rough with little food to eat and no opportunity to work. Despite the hardship in Algeria, the desperate young migrants said they won’t return to The Gambia. 

They added that they are still hopeful to make it out, as they searched for a group of  Gambians who have settled in the Algerian town of Faks, where they are now working as waste collectors.

“(It’s) too hard here. No food. We sleep outside. We are from The Gambia. We want to go to Faks, we have our brothers there,”the eldest of the three teenagers told Gambiana. 

“The Gambia is too hard now. No work and no money to go to school. Our parents cannot afford to pay schools for us and feed the family,” he added.

At least hundreds of Gambians have embarked on the perilous backway to Europe through the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. 

Others have opted to board boats travelling through the Atlantic Ocean to Spain’s Gran Canaria. Hundreds of them however have lost their lives.

This week a group of young Gambian migrants, from mainly Bakau, starved to death on a boat bound for Spain after they ran out of food and water. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba