- Distraught mother laments daughter’s plight in the hands of human traffickers
THEIRS was a journey to hell. Fresh from the Sahara Desert where the sights that confronted them on a daily basis were those of dry human skulls and decomposed human bodies, some lucky survivors of human trafficking have been recalling their traumatic experiences in their failed bid to get into Europe.
Back to their fatherland with frustration written all over their faces, the young men and women are taking solace in the fact that they returned home in one piece, unlike many of their counterparts who could not survive the vicissitudes of the desert.
Speaking after a sensitization programme organised for secondary school pupils by Patriotic Citizens Initiatives (PCI), a non-governmental organisation based in Lagos State,the returnees lamented that hundreds of young men and women illegally trafficked from Africa to Europe through the Sahara Desert are dying on a daily basis.
They are particularly miffed that in spite of the hordes of people that die on a daily basis, the human traffickers remain unperturbed. “Their consciences are dead. All they are concerned about is the gains they make from selling their victims. They merely regard the death of a victim as one of the risks of business,” one of them said.
One of the returnees, who gave his name simply as Emeka, said: “I never knew the fate that was about to befall me when a relation came to ask my parents if they would not mind giving me out to his friend who was based abroad for some years of apprenticeship, after which I would be settled and I would stand on my own.
“He painted the picture so well that my parents became too convinced and naively gave me out. I was equally happy because the story line given to my parents was too tempting to resist. I was already imagining what my life would look like living abroad.
“When the time came for us to travel, he told me on the way that because of some financial challenges, we would not be able to go by air, but we would certainly get to Europe. I did not bother about how we would get there, as long as I would be there, only that I wished to have a feel of what it takes to travel by air.
“Along the line, I discovered that I wasn’t the only one he was taking along. When I made my observation known to him, he said he had a lot of friends over there who had requested for apprentices, saying that he could not even get as many people as he would have loved to take along.”
“Midway into our journey, the story changed. He began to prepare our minds on what to expect on the way and what the journey would look like. I wasn’t even disturbed at that point because for all I cared, the end would justify the means. I was also encouraged by the fact that numerous others, aside from people in our team were also embarking on the same journey.
“By the time we got to the desert, we had run out of water and were dying of thirst. In the desert, water was like gold. It was like diamond which people would do anything to get. The fragile ones among us started falling ill and were dying of exhaustion.
“Everywhere in the desert, there were dry skulls as well as fresh and decomposing bodies. It was such a horrible sight. Unfortunately, the parents and relations of the casualties thought they were already in Europe and would send money to them.”
Angela, a female returnee, said apart from thirst, many of the travelers died of torture and rape in the hands of rebels and criminals in the desert.
She said: “It was such a horrible experience I would not wish even my enemy. I was lured into the arrangement by a friend who was equally brainwashed. She came telling me that an opportunity had opened for us to come out of the poverty that was eating us up and that very soon, we would be counted among the big girls in town.
“I jumped at it because I wasn’t going to spend a dime. I was told that all the expenses would be paid by an agent who would only be taking commission from our salaries after we would have been assisted to get jobs in Europe.
“The trip was not smooth at all. It was a journey of life and death. Danger awaited us at every point of the trip. It was a jungle kind of life and even your closest friend would not care about you because it was a situation of survival of the fittest. Everybody is out to save his or her neck. It is after you have survived that you can begin to think of another person.
“Ladies were openly raped, with some contracting sexually transmitted diseases and dying. The men, especially those who proved stubborn, were mercilessly beaten and at times murdered by rebels and criminals who specialised in extorting money from the travellers.”
Decrying the weather condition in the desert, she said: “The weather condition is always inclement. It is always very harsh. It is as if fire is burning one’s body. This makes one to get dehydrated easily and exhausted.
“The moment you can’t get water to drink, you would begin to get tired and unable to proceed. It is always worse if your team should leave you behind because you would have to find your way through. And where you are unable to do so, you would become a prey to the predators.”
Apparently bemused by the escalation of the worrisome trend, Femi, a returnee, said: “It appears the people doing this business use charms on the victims and their parents, because one can hardly resist them when they come calling.
“Another thing I observed during my journey was that most of us were young people in our teen ages and early 20s. Only a few were adults. This is another form of insurgency because an appreciable number of the youths who should be the future of the country are daily lost in the desert.
“I was lucky to have returned alive. So many others didn’t.
A mother’s ordeal
In a chat with our correspondent, Mrs. Esumadu, whose daughter is currently stranded in Libya, bemoaned the fate of the young girl, saying: “Blessing was born in 1995. The father is late. She was supposed to write her senior secondary school examination about two years ago but there was no money to purchase the form for her. She was angry because of this and left home.
“Before then, I had asked her to go for computer lessons instead of idling away. She made an enquiry and was told that six months training would cost N5,500. I told her to go for three months but she refused.
“After that, I told her to go and stay with my parents for a week so that I could sell some clothes in my shop to pay for the training. When I got the money, I called that I was coming to give her the money. When I got to my parents’ house, I didn’t see her. They said she left the village the previous day.
“I called my neighbours and they said she came home while I was away. By the time I returned home, I discovered she had parked her clothes and left. A month later, she sent me a text message, asking for forgiveness.
She continued: “Sometime in April 2013, my brother bought GCE forms for her and her friend and sent money for her to come to Lagos for that purpose. They expected to see her in Lagos but didn’t. I called my parents to know if she was with them but they said no.
“Subsequently, my brother called to tell me that she called with a foreign number. After some time, she called to tell me that she was in Libya with her friend. I asked how she got there and she said that someone took them there. Thereafter, she didn’t communicate with me for a very long time. My brother got angry and told her the implication of what she was doing.
“One midnight, she called and said the number she was using to call us was not hers, promising to send me her number when she got one. She eventually sent me a number and we started communicating. I kept begging her to come back.
“At first, she was lying to me that they were working with an Arabic firm. I told her it was a lie because I had watched a lot of movies about the plight of people who embarked on such journey.
“One day, she opened up to me, saying that they spent about three weeks passing through the desert and had spent two days on their way to Libya. She said some people had died in the process while some were left behind in the desert.
“She told me that they suffered a great deal in the desert because there was no food or water and the sand was difficult to walk on. She said she was only lucky to have made it to Libya.
“She said that when they got to the Connection House, each of them was sold for $6, 000 and that they had to pay back the money. She and her friend were taken to different connection houses.
“I asked her how they would pay back the money, she said that they had to sell their bodies to men and there was no way they could move out of the place unless they finished paying the money.”
Hinting on the effects of her daughter’s plight on her, she said: “I have been sick thinking about the whole thing. I don’t want to lose her. I know what it is sleeping with different men everyday just to make money.
“She sounds very dull on the phone. She used to be a lively child but her tone suggests she is not happy where she is presently caged. The man that bought her reduced the money she was to pay from $6,000 to $3000, and when somebody came to pay $2,000 on her behalf, the man jerked it up to $5,000.
“The next time I called her, she said she had run out of the place because of the arbitrary hike in the fee. Later, she said the man had called her back, agreeing to reduce the fee to $3,000 and should come back and complete the payment.
“I am not comfortable with all this because I have heard the story of all that they do there; sleeping with animals and all that. I am begging everyone who can help me, including government and individuals, to help me bring her back. I just want her to lead a normal life.”
Now sobbing, she said: “Her younger ones are missing her. She told me that she wants to come back and I would appreciate if they could help me bring her back. She doesn’t send money to me and I don’t even want such money. All I want is for her to come back home.”
Why human trafficking is money spinning
Osita Osemene, the Executive Director of CRI, whose organisation seeks to rescue trafficked and stranded Nigerians abroad, says trafficking is a money-spinning business and an easy one at that. He said that females in connection houses are always treated as animals and could be forced to sleep with as many as 15 men a day to earn sufficient money to pay back the investments on them.
As a result of the deplorable level of poverty in the land, ignorance on the part of parents and desperation of the citizens, especially the youth, for greener pastures, he said, human traffikers are quick to work on the psyche of many people and deceive them to embark on the journey that is always ill fated.
He said: “As a result of the huge returns that the traders get on their inhuman investment, many of them would never consider quitting it. All they need to do is to talk to as many desperate youths as possible by themselves or through their agents. When they do this, you will see a lot of unsuspecting youths going out of their ways to raise money to go.
“For the females who may not be able to raise money, they would always agree to fund their trip, knowing full well that they would sell them at a profit to those that would use them for prostitution, equally at a profit.”
Osita, who was a victim and lucky returnee, regretted that some victims are quick to master the business and easily switch to it when they would have nothing else to fall back on.
He said: “There was a young man who fell victim some years ago. When he came back to the country, he managed to hustle and acquired some trinkets; the type that hip-hop artistes wear. After that, he went to his village, bouncing around like somebody who had just returned from America.
“Before you knew it, ignorant parents started approaching him to also help their children to travel abroad. He asked them to provide hundreds of thousands of naira, assuring them that their families’ fortunes would soon improve. He collected the moneys he said were for their air travel and took them through the desert. There were more than 10 people he succeeded in deceiving.
“After a very long time of wandering in the desert, all the victims died except one. The lucky boy was the one that went back home to narrate the story to their people. Luck eventually ran out on the man and he was arrested and jailed.”
He said the people who are into human trafficking work as a syndicate and innocent people could become members.
He said: “There was a pastor, a member of the syndicate took some children to his house and begged him to help take them to another person because his schedule would not allow him to do just that. The pastor, who did not know there was a sinister motive behind the harmless instruction agreed to do so. Along the line, the plan was busted by security operatives. The pastor was fingered as a member of the syndicate and eventually sentenced.
“This is why it is imperative that massive campaigns and education are carried out on a daily basis to sensitise the general public to the dangers of this menace. It is increasing on a daily basis as the perpetrators are devising different methods all time the old one fails.
“Mile 2 motor park here in Lagos and Aduwawa Motor Park in Benin, Edo State are major transit routes of the traffickers.
“I have a working relationship with the association at Mile 2 and have apprehended a number of traffickers and handed them over to security agents. The drivers have been trained to identify traffickers of children that are meant for that purpose, and once they see such, they alert us. Unfortunately, some parents are also culpable.
“When we did a sensitization programme in Benin, some of the drivers told me that the traffickers move their victims early in the morning from the park to the northern part of the country, from where they move them to the desert for all manner of odious engagements.
“Many of the parents who attended the programme were weeping because the event made them to realise what their children, especially the female ones, could be going through.”
