The Grass is Greener

Global Perspective is the BBC World Service's international documentary series.

Each year the BBC World Service collaborates with radio stations from around the world to make a documentary series on a contemporary subject of international importance and interest.

Each partner station contributes a documentary which gives a local interpretation of the chosen theme, and this year the theme is Escape.

Programme Three: The Grass is Greener

Ghana is an African country that is comparatively stable politically and economically, and yet large numbers of the population want to escape overseas to where they think 'The Grass is Greener'.

Ghanaians come back from working overseas and build grand houses and flaunt their wealth with new cars and the latest mobile phones, which makes the poor Ghanaians at home long to get a better paid job than they can hope for at home.

Presenter Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, of Joy 99.7 FM radio station in Accra, has had his own taste of study and menial work in the UK, and is now content to be back in Ghana.

Desperate measures

Kojo meets young people who are still desperate to travel outside the country, among them Christopher, an unemployed graduate who falsified documents to accompany his visa application and was found out.

And then there are those who in their thousands bypass the visa queues altogether and set off across the Sahara desert towards North Africa, hoping to get to Europe by boat.

Kojo meets Ciire, a pineapple farmer who risked his life and spent 7 years trying to get to Europe, though many from his group of 35 illegal migrants died of dehydration in the desert or were killed by bandits on the way.

What must change in Ghana for more Ghanaians to want to stay?

First broadcast on April 04 2008