Somali migrant Mohamed Abdi Awale endured horrors on an ill-fated journey across Africa to seek a better life in the West — but he's determined to try again one day, even aiming for the U.S. despite increasing restrictions.

Awale is one of 165 Somali migrants recently repatriated after being detained in Libya, where the International Organization for Migration says those caught on journeys to Europe face “unacceptable and inhumane conditions.”

Awale undertook a more than 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) journey, leaving Somali capital Mogadishu to cross Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan.

He was captured by smugglers near the Sudan-Libyan border and taken to the Sahara oasis town of Kufra, where captors filmed him being tortured in a bid to extract a ransom from his family.

"Torture became a regular occurrence," Awale said.

"If you failed to pay the demanded amount, you would be beaten and tortured severely. Some of my companions were beaten so badly that they lost their sanity, while others succumbed to the torture."

After Awale was released from Kufra, he was put in a car bound for the Mediterranean coast with other migrants.

When their vehicle broke down, the group trekked for more than two weeks, facing starvation and dehydration.

The group was then detained outside of Tripoli, and Awale spent a month in prison in the coastal town of Sirte and another two months in detention in Tripoli before his repatriation to Somalia in November.

Awale became one of hundreds of thousands of Somalis that have fled the country in more than three decades of civil war, according to UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, which estimates that another 3.5 million people are displaced within Somalia itself.

Changes to U.S. immigration policy this year under the Trump administration changed the calculus of migrants like Awale.

resident Donald Trump banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of Somalia and 11 other countries in June — so Awale set his sights on Europe.

Awale remains hopeful that he will reach the U.S. one day, despite anti-Somali sentiment from the White House and a further tightening of immigration restrictions for Somalis.

The White House also announced this week that it was pausing all immigration applications for people from 19 countries, including Somalia.

AP video shot by: Mohamed Sheikh Nor