Emelia, a Ghanaian currently based in Saudi Arabia, has shared a heartbreaking account of her migration journey after appearing on SVTV Africa’s Daily Hustle Worldwide show. Her story is one of hope, deception, survival, and deep regret.
Before traveling, Emelia lived in Ghana where she worked as a teacher while also running side businesses, including mobile money services and sachet water sales. Through these efforts, she managed to buy a plot of land and invested in sand and chippings, preparing to build her future. However, everything changed when an aunt introduced her to an agent who claimed he could take people to Australia.
According to Emelia, the agent promised Australia but insisted the journey would be by road. When she questioned him about his passport, he showed her a black passport without stamps, but she and others failed to investigate further. The agent moved around with about five men, and she became part of the group. He instructed them to buy winter jackets and other travel items. They later met him at Dormaa Station and took a taxi to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The agent collected GHS 2,700 from her, claiming visa processing was underway and that Mauritius was their first stop to secure the visa. In Côte d’Ivoire, he lodged them in a mosquito-infested hotel filled with bedbugs. Frustrated, they changed hotels, only to later realize his real plan was to recruit more victims. At a Ghanaian chop bar, a woman even wanted her two sons to join the journey.
After spending about a month in Côte d’Ivoire, the agent bought them tickets to Mauritius. Upon arrival, immigration officers arrested them, questioning why they traveled from Ghana through Côte d’Ivoire and searched their luggage, including canned food. When they tried calling the agent, he stopped picking their calls. They were later detained and eventually released, only to realize they had been stranded.
As time went on, Emelia and the others discovered the painful truth: the agent had no connection to Australia and no plan to send them there. Desperate to survive, they contacted the Ghanaian community, which helped Emelia secure a restaurant job and found work for the boys who traveled with her.
Another man later introduced them to a different agent who promised Japan via Madagascar, demanding $1,000. Emelia and another teacher agreed, though the boys refused to trust anyone again. They traveled to Madagascar and waited three days for a Japanese visa that never came. They ended up spending months there during lockdown, stranded once again.
Searching for a visa-free destination, they moved to Dubai. In Dubai, a friend’s boyfriend accommodated them in a very small room. Through an office in Abu Dhabi, Emelia got a house-help job, while the boys worked at a construction site. However, tragedy struck when a disturbing incident occurred involving a child in the house. Fearing foul play and deeply traumatized, Emelia quit the job and became seriously ill.
She was later taken to the hospital, where doctors told her she would have died if she had arrived later. After recovering, she secured another job opportunity, which eventually led her to Saudi Arabia to work in a restaurant. Sadly, she says the money she earns is very small, and she feels frustrated and trapped.
Today, Emelia says she only wants to return to Ghana and restart her businesses. She revealed that she sold everything she owned to fund the journey. Her parents currently take care of her children back home. She left Ghana six years ago, and her children—aged 15, 8, and 2 at the time she traveled—barely know her. One of them only recognizes her through phone calls. The children’s father, she said, does not support them and remains in Ghana.
Reflecting on her past, Emelia admitted that while she was in Ghana, she believed traveling abroad meant success. “I thought once you boarded a plane, you had made it,” she said. “But now I realize I was already rich in Ghana. My life then cannot be compared to my life now.”
She revealed that the boys she traveled with were eventually deported in Mauritius. Currently, she avoids spending money, lives modestly, and does not go out, all in preparation to return home. Although she once dreamed of continuing to Europe, listening to motivational speaker Obeng Darko changed her mindset.
“I just want to go home and work,” Emelia said, urging others to think deeply before risking everything on uncertain migration journeys.
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