African Stowaway
Deported
John Mensa travelled
7.000 kilometres from
the country of Ghana in
Africa to make it to the
shores of Costa Rica as
a stowaway on a merchant
ship, only to be headed
back to his country
after Costa Rican
immigration police
deported him.
Mensa said that he
boarded a ship in
Senegal after paying a
"coyote" us$5.000
dollars, made his way to
Sierra Leona and then to
Costa Rica, fleeing
hunger and civil war in
his country.
The African said his
dream was to have made
it to Holland where he
expected to find work or
play soccer, escaping to
save his life.
However the journey kept
taking longer and longer
that he finally
surrendered himself to
the ships crew and
landed in Costa Rica on
December 23, 2007.
According to the Policía
de Migración Mensa was
deported for being in
the country illegally.
Francisco Castaing,
director of the Policía
de Migración, explained
that an administrative
process was begun
against the man and was
deported. Castaing said
that they ran into
travel difficulties in
Germany where they had
to revise their travel
plans and handed over
Mensa officials in
Abidjan, on the Ivory
Coast, near Ghana. |
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