[WATCH] Malian migrant recounts journey to Malta, voices hardship faced everyday

28-year-old Ali Konate was not surprised to hear about Mamadou Kamara's death.

"You are surprised by something that you don't expect. And this for me wasn't a surprise," Konate, a spokesman for the Migrants' Network for Equality, says.

"I know how they treat you if you try to escape or something goes wrong while your are in detention."

Interviewed by Saviour Balzan on Favourite Channel's Reporter, Konate recounts how for 18 months he had to live at the detention centre until, in 2004, he went to live in an open centre.

"I remember a day when three guys had escaped. It was early in the morning, around 5am, and we were all sleeping when suddenly the soldiers came in and started shouting at us, pulling away our blankets and calling us to go outside," he says.

Konate says that the soldiers started pushing the bunk beds to the floors, shouting that the migrants had hid objects to cut the fence with.

"They had no idea how to treat the migrants back then. I see the difference today when I go to visit people at the detention centres. It has improved a lot from what it was 10 years ago."

A decade has passed since Konate was in Malta, and during the eight years he spent living in the community, he has continued to face racism because of his skin colour.

"It is the skin colour: we face problems on the bus because of our colour; we face problems in the clubs because of our colour; we face problems at the workplace because of the colour. And when I say 'colour' it is because of the colour. I came to Malta with people from Iraq and while they can work anywhere, I cannot."

Konate, however, didn't want to come to Malta, and like many of the irregular migrants who land on the Maltese shores, had aimed for Europe.

"I was living in Libya when someone told me that there was a ship leaving for Europe. It is only on the day of departure that they tell you where you're going, and then tell you that the ship would not make it to the mainland and that we'd have to transfer to a small boat," he says.

Konate explains how he had to pay $1,100 (some €900) to get on board a ship which he would have to work on as well. He says that everything was arranged for by individuals working for a high-ranking official in the Libyan army.

These people were paid precisely to lure persons such as Konate who wanted to leave Libya, who everyday were faced by insults and were thrown stones at just because they weren't Libyans.

Just like any other person, Konate dreams of building a future and settling down. But he cannot. He works, he pays taxes and N.I. and yet he doesn't enjoy social benefits. If he gets sick, he is on his own. When he comes to retire, he won't receive any pension.