Europe migration through eyes of Senegalese workers

Ibrahima Mbaye and Waly Sarr found no other way but to come to Europe.

They had no other means of sustaining their families back home in Senegal.

They are among the few lucky ones who arrived legally.

They both came to Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island closer to Africa than to Europe, where thousands of migrants arrive every year at the end of a perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea.

Mbaye and Sarr see their fellow citizens landing on the island almost everyday in the summer, when weather conditions allow for the sea crossing from Libyan and Tunisian shores.

"I wouldn't believe it, if somebody would have told me that in Lampedusa everyday 30 or 25 boats arrive, I would not have believed it. But now that I came here I saw it with my own eyes," says Mbaye.

He arrived in Lampedusa a year and a half ago, by plane via France.

After spending four years in Milan he finally settled here when he was hired as part of the mixed Italian-Senegalese crew of the 'Vincenzo Padre' of which Sarr was already part.

30-year-old Sarr from Dakar has been living on the island for almost ten years now.

In 2012 he joined his father who had been already working on the Vincenzo Padre.

He too, came by plane with the papers in order.

Something very hard to obtain for most migrants.

"I think that if I hadn't got that possibility, I would have done like them," Sarr says referring to the many migrants he sees arriving to Lampedusa.

Attempting a journey that could mean to die drowned into the unknown is what is left as the only option for many poor people in Africa, both Sarr and Mbaye say.

If no other way to reach Europe legally was there, that is what they would have done too, in order to find a job and send money back home.

"There is a risk, but you don't see the it, you don't want to risk, but the only thing you see is that you want to come to find work. If you take that risk it's because you want people back home to survive," Sarr says.

Mbaye and Sarr say they are one family on the boat with the other two Italian crew members and the captain.

They work next to each other for days out at sea and in the harbour of Lampedusa when they do maintenance work to the boat.

They feel the local community on the island is also mostly welcoming with them, as they see they both are hard-workers.

Sarr and Mbaye say they feel they have become full citizens on the island.

With many days spent at sea, the job is hard but they can send money to their relatives in Senegal, where they both have children and wives.

With his regular job as fisherman, Sarr can support his wife, his 7-month-old daughter and his extended family back home, including his father's two wives and children.

Mbaye, who graduated in accounting at the university in Dakar, left his wife and three children because despite his education he could not find any job.

Leaving Senegal was painful, Mbaye says.

He says Africa is rich, and there should be plenty of opportunities for the younger generation, but governments do not do enough to prevent people from leaving.

"The young people they have to stay there, our government must help people to remain in Africa, and develop Africa," he says.

Seeing young people arriving on Lampedusa without papers hoping for a better future in Italy is also painful.

Italy is the main point of arrival for migrants crossing the sea from Africa.

As of May 11, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR estimates that about 25 thousand migrants have reached Southern Europe this year, more than 23,000 by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Of that number, more than 13,000 arrived at Italy, according to the UNHCR.