When I was younger my dad told me about me grandpa´s past, saying he was taken to Africa as a prisoner of war (WWII). I don´t know anything about who put him there, where this might have been or what exactly he was doing there. The only thing I know is that he must have been doing some kind of physical labour there. I have not been able to find anything about this and since my grandpa and my dad have already died I am not able to obtain any more information about this from them. I hope someone can shed some light on this for me.
POWs captured by the Allies powers were placed, well, everywhere, and in the case of the British, that included Africa, with throughout the Continent, from Egypt to South Africa, although Germans were almost exclusively in North Africa, with other camps housing Italians. Some of the camps were permanent, while others were transit camps to hold prisoners until they could be transported further away, such as to India or Australia. Regardless of which type of camp, utilization in labor would be expected for enlisted men (Officers were generally excluded).
The one thing I would note here, though, is that it would be not very common for a POW to be sent to Africa. If captured in north-west Europe, they would more likely end up in the UK, US, or Canada. Camps in Africa were mostly for troops captured in Africa, although other operations in the MTO would also see POWs directed that way - so Greece or Italy. Unfortunately the table I have doesn't distinguish between whether held in camps in Italy or North Africa, but the British held 13,500 German POWs in that region as of February 1945 (considerably higher numbers of Italians were held in African camps).
Correction title: Where were they likely taken *to