Despair at home increases, and more and more Africans risk their lives at sea

                  
Samba Thiam, who recently left his home village in search of work in Dakar, Senegal

Samba Thiam knew exactly what would happen after his older brother drowned with another 800 migrants last spring in one of the worst shipwrecks in the recent history of the Mediterranean Sea.

But soon Thiam would also have to test your luck.

Now that his brother was, Thiam, 23, is the oldest man in the family, which should support the widow and three daughters of his brother, and his mother and his wife and son.

So instead of making Thiam back of a journey so treacherous, the death of his brother actually increased the likelihood of it from the same dangerous route.

"I'm sure that if he had arrived in Europe our lives have changed," Thiam said. "If I do not get a job, I will run the risk and will do the same."

More than 1,300 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in boats that left from North Africa only in recent weeks. Most of those who risk all to cross comes from places like Eritrea, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia and other African countries where the labor market is devastated.

The global debate on migration often focuses on the desperate routes of Syrians fleeing the horrible civil war. But the latest deaths at sea are a powerful reminder that the journey that Africans do to escape the difficulties of daily life in their countries is significantly more dangerous --and increasingly common, according to the UN.

Get to Europe starting from places like Senegal often requires cross hundreds of kilometers of desert patrolled by thieves and the most feared terrorist groups, branches of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

On Thursday, the government of Niger reported that the bodies of 34 migrants, including 20 children, were found in the Sahara near the border of Algeria.

Those who manage to get to Libya or Algeria take boats in poor condition and overcrowded trying to cross the Mediterranean. But the chances of dying at sea on the way to Italy are high: about one person every 23 departing in the venture.

                      
From left to right, Mouhamed Ndao, Sadio Deh Samba Thiam and watch TV in the house who share the outskirts of Dakar

Despite the risks, a number three to four times more migrants than usual has come to Libya in recent weeks, coming from Niger, a place much sought for crossing the Sahara, according to Giuseppe Loprete, head of mission in Niger of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Up to 17,000 people made the crossing in a single week of June.

About 240,000 migrants are now in Libya, looking for work or waiting to cross, according Loprete. Those who took boats in recent days are just the tip of the iceberg.

More than 2,800 migrants and refugees have died in the Mediterranean journey this year, an increase of 56% compared to the same period last year, according to the IOM.

To prevent people embark to Europe, the European Commission said last week it would give up to $ 70 billion (about US $ 241 billion) for projects in several countries of the Middle East and Africa with the largest migrant numbers .

For the inhabitants of West Africa, Niger reach the arduous trail to Europe costs about US $ 400 (R $ 1,380.00), the sum often obtained with relatives who sell their livestock or personal property. Then to follow Niamey, the capital, they have to pay another fat rate, which takes a lot of people off guard. Often they get stuck there, struggling to get more money.

Thiam received a call from his brother, Amadou, 25, when he arrived without a penny to Niger. The family sold the cattle and sent the money to continue the journey. Halfway to Libya, robbers attacked their group, but Amadou managed to flee before them to take their money.

Finally reached the boat crowded with 800 people, but drowned when it sank off the coast of Libya, while a cargo ship came to their rescue.

He had never gone on a boat, nor could swim.

Thiam tried to support his family in his native village after his brother died. His small farm --the only job option that tinha-- was already in difficulties. So some cows ended with a field of corn that he had managed to produce that poor soil.

                     

Sadio Deh (3rd left) and Mouhamed Ndao (2nd right), between family children in the house who share the outskirts of Dakar

So Thiam was the Dakar in search of work, about 400 km away from their village. He and 12 men now live in a concrete house in Parcelles Assainies Unité 8, an allotment on the outskirts of Dakar made in the 1970s to house poor families. The rooms consist of nothing more than straw mats side by side, to house the largest possible number of people.

Across Africa, the treacherous journey to Europe often begins in houses like this --a point on the way to men who left their families to look for work, but are not yet desperate enough to cross the sea. The men live in five or more in a bedroom, living on odd jobs, if they are lucky, in places with the highest unemployment rates in the world.

One by one, they will starting to try their luck and get to Europe.

Amadou Konte, 26, is looking for work in Dakar for weeks, living than you can every day. He's never been in a boat and not swim, either, but it sure get to Italy an uncle who lives there will help you find work.

Like the other men, Konte has a sense of inevitability about what he knows to be a dangerous journey.

"If you have to die, will die," he said.

                        

Mouhamed Ndao (center) back with food, while Samba Thiam (right) sits outside the house who share the outskirts of Dakar

The situation is repeated in all the houses of the neighborhood, the city and the region. The few good jobs go to those with education.

"You know, if you have not studied may not think that will get other jobs," said Thiam, who attended the religious school, but has no other studies.

Every day, Thiam, with the shy way of a stunned tourist in the city, leave home at 7am and hit the streets knocking on doors of homes and businesses, to ask if you can clean bathrooms and floors.

In the same room where Thiam live, there is a man who works as a money changer money, two that run through the city center with shoe boxes in search of customers and another young man who finds no work.

"It's very difficult to find work here, not only in Senegal, but across Africa," said Mouhamed Ndao, 35, one of the shoeshine. "If you want to think about the future of your children, you have to go to Europe."

Forced by circumstances to unite, men take care of each other, buying medicines when someone gets sick or giving part of the $ 40 rental for those who can not pay. Sometimes at night they take tea and talk about their problems. But in general, tired of the long day, just go to sleep.

"We have family and friends to support us," said Ndao, who brought her three young daughters who need medical treatment in Dakar. "We have compassion for others."

All the men in the house said they know someone who arrived in Italy or France, an uncle or a friend. The fruits of your trip are displayed in the villages, where the beneficiaries have new smartphones, TVs or houses. The families of those who are here wonder why they can not have it too. If they return home empty-handed, they fear being rejected.

While her daughters gathered nearby, Ndao was the center of a dozen men, with a single lamp serving as a reflector, and enunciated the monologue of a migrant:

"If you have no money in our society, they do not consider a human being. If your children seek asking just a dollar and you can not give them, is a shame. And if your parents need something and you can not support them? At some point you become overwhelmed with bitterness. Take the risk is better than doing nothing. Even if you