A Ghanaian man currently living in Leeds, UK, has opened up about the tough reality of life abroad, revealing in an interview on SVTV Africa’s Daily Hustle Worldwide show with DJ Nyaami that he deeply regrets leaving Ghana.
According to him, he has lived in the UK for two years but is now eager to return home. “Before I traveled, even as a child, I always dreamt of going abroad. But now I know it’s no joke,” he said.
He emphasized that although some Ghanaian celebrities like Medikal and Wendy Shay have lived in the UK and Germany, they chose to return to Ghana — and they are doing just fine. “We need to fix our minds on Ghana and stay there. Life here is not as easy as people think.”
He shared how he came to the UK on a visitor visa but overstayed, and now life is even harder without legal documents. “Living abroad without papers is like being an animal. You have no freedom,” he lamented.
He currently works long, grueling shifts in factories, fridges, and cold storage facilities — often for 12 hours straight — which has left him with severe back problems. “I used to be okay in Ghana, but I thought traveling would be better. Now I have back pain from lifting heavy loads every day.”
The man, who has three children back home in Ghana, said he is also planning to marry a woman in Ghana. “Whenever I think about my kids, I feel sad. There’s no happiness here. If I were in Ghana with my children around me, I’d be happier. Life abroad is just stress.”
He also talked about the difficulty of dating abroad, especially with legal status issues. “When you meet a white woman here, the first thing they ask is: when did you come, have you been back to Ghana, and where do you work? If you say car wash, they immediately know you have no papers. I even went to church looking for a woman to marry, but because I have no documents, it didn’t work out.”
He narrated how a single mother he once dated ended the relationship because he didn’t know how to cook for her kids. “Most single mothers here will just use you for three months before helping you with papers — if they ever do.”
He recalled a friend who came through his mother but ended up fighting with her just a month later, and now they don’t speak. He also mentioned how he used to wash cars, but the person he worked under kept the money and refused to pay him.
“People die a lot here — especially Nigerians. Life is not what people back home think. Even getting something like Aboniki balm helps us massage our body after long days of hard labor.”
He concluded by saying he plans to return to Ghana before the end of the year. “Many of the old ‘borgas’ here avoid taking pictures because they’re suffering. One guy used to work in a bank in Ghana, but now he’s struggling here and wishes he could go back voluntarily. If the president gave us a free flight home, many of us would jump on it. I believe if you don’t have a criminal record, they won’t chase you.”
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