Italy-based Ghanaian Augustine Onomah revealed that he tried stowaway four times but was always arrested and deported back to Ghana. He hid in a shipping container for about 19 days in one of his attempts to stow abroad.
On Augustine’s first attempt, he hid on a ship he believed was headed for Spain, but he was arrested in Mauritania and deported back to the Tema Port. In an interview on SVTV AFRICA with DJ Nyaami, Augustine indicated that he was not discouraged and made a second attempt.
“On my second attempt, I hid somewhere in the crane with two other guys. After the ship sailed, we moved and hid under the pallets. The boatswain caught us, inspected the ship again and marched us to their deck. After three days on the ship, they called GHAPOHA to pick us up, but they never came. So they put us on a fishing boat and sent us back to Ghana,” he narrated.
Augustine’s final attempt was the most memorable one for him. They spent 19 days on a ship that moved to Morocco and returned to Takoradi before sailing again.
“They told the ship would not make any stops, but it did. We stopped in Senegal, and it turned back to Takoradi Harbour, but we thought we had arrived in Spain. So as we started jubilating, we heard those outside speaking Fante Twi. We stayed on the ship till they moved again.”
“When we finally arrived in Spain, it was a private harbour, and we were the only Blacks there. They called the police on us and had the boat take us back to Togo,” he added.
Kindly watch the full interview below;
