From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
some of the 750 indigenes of Edo State, who were fortunate to benefit from the initiatives mounted by international humanitarian organisations to rescue and return Nigerian migrants trapped in Libya, have been sharing tales of the hellish experience they had in their quest to get to Europe, in search of greener pasture. These ones literally escaped from Libya with the skin of their teeth.
Some of the female returnees came with pregnancies while a few came with babies.
In various interviews with Sunday Sun, they recounted the horrific slave treatment they were subjected to by the Libyans.
Narrating her bitter experience, Peace Osazuwa, 22, who was engaged in fashion design before heading out of Nigeria on the tortuous and risky journey to Libya said: “I completed fashion and design training in February this year after being an apprentice for three years. I had to travel out because there was no one to support me in starting on my own.
“My sister over there assisted me to get to Libya but I don’t know how much she paid to get me there. But when I got there, I was not able to reach her as she was no longer picking my calls.”
The journey to Libya, she revealed, was tedious because they had to trek most of the time before getting to where they could board a vehicle.
“The place is a desert and it is difficult to get water; that is what kills most people. I saw dead bodies on my way to Libya. You see people dying while crying for water but we had to move on. I was able to survive because my mom used to send money to me.”
Osazuwa explained further: “Life is difficult there because the Libyans were wicked to us; they always beat us every now and then. I received uncountable beatings and other kinds of inhuman treatment, especially when you don’t have money to give them.
“We were living in a ghetto. At any time, they would storm the place and ask us to lie down for a search and if they didn’t find money on us they would start beating us. I spent seven months in Libya but was not able to cross before I was arrested,” she said.
Mr. Sylvester Agho, a father of five also described his experience in Libya as “harrowing and horrible.”
Just like his other co-deportees, he said his intention was not to stay in Libya but to transit to Europe but he eventually got stuck in the country, arrested and jailed for several months.
Agho was a transporter in Nigeria before embarking on the deadly voyage. Agho said the money he was making in Nigeria was not enough. Buoyed by thoughts of doing better in Europe, he decided to abandon his transportation business and try his fate outside the shores of the country.
His words: “When I was in Nigeria, I was a transporter. I was making money but just because I wanted to improve on my standard of living that was why I travelled so that I can give my family a better life but as it is now, I thank God for everything because in everything that happens to a man, we have to thank God.
“Well, my coming back to Edo State, I am happy because there is no place like home. When you are in Nigeria, you have the freedom to move about without molestation, but the moment you step out of the shores of Nigeria, you have lost your freedom. There is a great discrimination over there but in Nigeria, there is nothing like such. You can walk freely but over there, there is nothing like that.
“I left this country June 15 this year and am back today which means that I spent five months and some weeks there but throughout that period, I was in hell.
“There was nothing good over there. Well, to those that are going there, there is nothing on earth that will make me to say that I want to travel by land to Europe but for those going back, I advise them not to go back but to stay in Nigeria and find something else to do.
“I beg the government to help the youths that have come home because they are now jobless. They will now be thinking different things in their minds. The government can help.”
Similarly, Mercy Mathew, another fashion designer, said she sold her shop to raise money for the journey to Libya. Mercy spent six months in Libya, an experience she described as horrible and bitter.
“My destination was Italy but I was not able to cross the sea. We suffered in the hands of Libyans, many people died and our boys are still there suffering. We were hiding from security agents and when you go out you are not sure whether you will come back alive because there were guns everywhere.”
She advised other youths and girls not to venture into the journey because there is much suffering. She added: “It is better to stay in Nigeria than going to Libya because of the torture, once you are caught by security agents.”
Also speaking, Future Austin, said the desire to seek a better life pushed her to Libya where she was treated like a slave.
“It was an unpleasant experience because we could stay for a day without eating and most of the time we were living on a loaf of bread,” she disclosed.
Another returnee, who gave her name as Joy, 28, was deported with a six-month old baby. She said: “My boyfriend and I left Benin together about a year and half ago. As at the time we left, the journey was about N200,000 and both of us paid N400,000. My boyfriend was not deported because he was in Libya but I was about to cross to Italy, when I was caught and deported back to Nigeria.”
Joy said that she worked as a housemaid in Libya while the boyfriend sold meat with Libyans.
“I didn’t plan to stay in Libya because of the unbearable situation. I was there because I was not able to cross to Italy. So this time when I went to cross, we were on the sea when police arrested us and took us to prison before the United Nations came and deported us to Nigeria. I can’t even advise my enemy to undertake the journey to Libya because it is very dangerous. Even if my husband asks me to come, I can only go by flight,” she said.
Mr. Destiny Gabriel, another returnee, said he was overwhelmed with joy to have been deported back to Nigeria: “When I came to Nigeria last night, I was happy. I had joy, freedom, because we lived in a place where there was no freedom. They do not have respect for human beings at all. So that was some of the experiences I had in Libya.
“On our return home, I was expecting to get something to start a life again, because a lot of us spent our last money, sold our property to leave this country, to earn a better life. I believe that if Nigeria was good and our government planned well for us, the urge to embark on the hellish journey to Europe through Libya would not have arisen in the first place.”
Destiny appealed to the federal and state governments to provide a means of livelihood for the returnees to prevent them from taking to crime.
His words: “The federal and state governments should do something. They should not sleep. They should not allow the youths to enter the streets. They should do something that will encourage us to know that our governments are really there for us.
“They should give us money. We are in December period now and there is nothing we will do to take care of our families in this December. How are we going to make money to take care of our families in this December? We need money to buy clothes for ourselves, to buy clothes for our families, to buy food for our families; some of us do not even have money to rent an apartment.
“I appreciate the Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki, who said we should stay in this hotel for three days. But after three days, what then happens to us? Like some of us, we do not even have a place to stay after that three days. Where do we go from here? That is the question I am asking the governor.”
Ehis Doris from Delta State who spent seven months in Libya lamented that the Libyans only saw Nigerians as slaves who should be maltreated in the most dehumanising manner.
“Almost all the Libyan youths have guns which they use to terrorize us. And I don’t even want to undertake such journey because the suffering is worse than the one here. I was going to Italy but just stayed there to be able to cross into Italy by sea. They kept telling us to wait that it would get to our turn to cross but it had not gotten to our turn before we were arrested,” she said.
Sadly, Doris obtained the National Diploma from a polytechnic in Delta State, but said there was no money for her to further her education, hence she embarked on the search for a greener pasture but could not succeed.
Meanwhile, the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Edo chapter, led by Comrade Innocent Ajayi, while welcoming the deportees back home, asked them to put the past behind them and hope for better days ahead.
He said the council would partner the state government to render the desired assistance to them while also calling on them to make good use of the skill acquisition centers provided by the state government to enable them pick up the pieces of their life and start afresh.
Meanwhile, Catholic women on the platform of Africa Faith and Justice Network Nigeria, coordinated by Rev. Sister Eucharia Madueke, has called on traditional rulers in Edo State to intensify campaign against the danger and risks associated with trafficking in persons in their various domains.
The group, a non-governmental organization founded on the principle of social justice, equally tasked the youths to take advantage of their God-given talents and acquire the necessary skills for empowerment.
The group urged the royal fathers to use their highly reverred traditional authority to clamp down on agents, individuals and brothels that indulges in trafficking of underage girls in their various communities, adding that the law would henceforth take its course on those found guilty of rape and human rights abuses.
Recall that Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, said that an estimated 10,000 Edo indigenes have traveled to Libya within a year, noting that 3,000 deaths have been recorded. He also said that his government would continue to help the returnees in the state find their footing by enabling them to acquire new skills and participation in its agricultural programme.