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The quest for greener pastures has led many Ghanaians to journey to foreign countries, only for some to find out not all that glitters is gold.

The story of a young Ghanaian single mother named Florence Mankoh is a good lesson to the lot of Ghanaians whose dream is to travel to countries like Lebanon, Sudan, Kuwait and with some even journeying as far as Iraq; all for a "better" life.

Florence Mankoh, who lived migrated to Lebanon a year ago, is but one of thousands of such Ghanaians who has come to terms with the popular adage ''home sweet home''.

In an interview with host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'' Monday morning, she expressed her regrets in making that infamous trip.

Recounting her ordeal during her one-year stay in Lebanon, she revealed that her trip was made possible through the assistance of a ''connection man'', and paid Ghc 2000, to the "facilitator" following the assurances of a ready job awaiting her that pays a monthly salary of $200. But according to her, her inhumane treatment at the hands of her "employers" was one she wouldn't even wish for her enemies.

" . .  I made my buggage ready and was told to use a route through Nigeria, which I did, and later followed all instructions to finally be in Lebanon . . . my woes began when I started working . . . I was first asked to be a cleaner in a restaurant but without remuneration.

" . . Then later, I was linked to a Lebanese family where I worked as a domestic worker (housemaid) but more of a slave . . . I worked for seven months and was paid for just three months . . . when I couldn't stand their maltreatment any longer. I run from home to sleep on the streets.

"Some of the barbaric things which were done to me by the people I was working for ranged from I being savagely beaten up after I had demanded from my bosses my accumulated salaries, to the eating of leftovers because my bosses had to eat first and then pass on the crumbs to me when they're fully satisfied.

" . . my bosses attempted to force me to drink a medication that would have rendered me mentally unstable but for the intervention of a friend who identified the drug, I perhaps would have been walking on the streets as mad person by now," she disclosed.

Florence Mankoh and others who have suffered torture in the Lebanese nation returned to Ghana in August this year by the help of the Ambassador to Egypt, Lebanon to Sudan, Dr. Winfred Nii Okai Hammond and the Government of Ghana.

She revealed she's lost her child due to her ordeal and therefore sworn never to go back to Lebanon or any of those countries which have consistently been in the news for subjecting Ghanaian nationals to agonizing and unfathomable pains.
 
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