Equatorial Guinea’s north-eastern town
of Ebebiyin is the gateway for
clandestine travellers from Cameroon.
On a daily basis, hundreds of young
men and women, school dropouts and
degree holders pay Equatoguinean
drivers between 50,000 francs ($100)
and 150,000 francs ($300) to take them
across the border, according to a
research carried out by African Sports
Monthly.
These drivers in turn bribe police and
immigration officers at each check point
to avoid paper controls on their
passengers.
The passengers are offloaded in the
nearest town to begin their adventure in
a country where they are told they can
find babysitting jobs, become a house
help or waitress, do bricklaying, security,
gardening, carpentry, etc, or sell clothes,
cell phone accessories, shoes, perfumes
and creams, to make a good living.
Cameroonians make up the highest
number of black foreigners in Equatorial
Guinea, running to an estimated
250,000, according to the embassy;
followed by Malians, around 95,000.
Finding a job is not as easy as
rumoured, but once one is landed it pays
better than what is offered elsewhere in
the region.
A waitress or babysitter earns between
120,000 francs ($240) and 220,000
($440), as opposed to rates of 15,000
francs ($30) and 45,000 ($90) for the
same job in Cameroon or Mali.
A computer or cell phone technician
makes between 400,000 francs ($800)
and 600,000 francs ($1,200) per month
in Equatorial Guinea, perhaps half of
that elsewhere.
With oil production of 360,000 barrels
per day, Equatorial Guinea is the third
largest oil producer in sub-Saharan
Africa and is heavily reliant on its oil and
natural gas industry, which account for
almost 95 per cent of its gross domestic
product (GDP) and 99 percent of its
export earnings, according to the
International Monetary Fund.
Government workers and those in the
private sector earn enough to spend on
drinks, fast food, clothes, and cell
phones thus helping to grow the
businesses of petit traders, most of them
foreigners.
However, every black foreigner in the
country has to cope with the perpetual
nightmare of police harassment —
mostly at night. Most of the policemen
are brutal, heartless perverts, according
to many victims who spoke to African
Sports Monthly.
Police regularly raid the quarters where
foreigners live or work to ask for
residence permits. If you don’t have valid
papers, they may handcuff you and ask
you to follow them into the dark. If you
have money you might be allowed to go
free, if you are lucky to be dealing with
the few with conscience, according to
victims.
“During the two years spent in this
country I have been stopped by police
more than 40 times and mostly while
returning from job at night. Even while in
the taxi, they stop the driver and ask
everybody for papers. Those who don’t
come down while the taxi continues its
journey,” Patricia Enou, a Cameroonian
waitress in Bata, tells Africa Sports
Monthly.
“Each stop, you are asked to pay
between 10,000 francs ($20) and 50,000
($100). They might handcuff you and
take you to their base if you don’t have
money. If you are a woman they could
rape you behind their vehicles late at
night. Every black foreigner in Equatorial
Guinea lives in fear every day,” she
says.
All the foreigners spoken to by African
Sports Monthly are bitter about the
treatment they get from police and the
authorities’ silence on the situation.
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