In the last one year not less than 1,000 Nigerian youths perished in the Mediterranean Sea; some were lost in the desert while numerous others were in various refugee camps in Libya in their quest for greener pasture. Sina Fadare, who encountered some of the returnees,’ writes that more is yet to be done to discourage this unprofitable journey
ROSELINE Omohodu could be described as a cat with nine lives. She has cheated death many times and was lucky to have, by the stroke of luck, escaped on each occasion the agent of death visited during her voyage on the Mediterranean Sea.
She was about to get married to her heartthrob who was in the same vocation with her, cloth designing, in which they are cynosure of all eyes in the vicinity they are leaving in Ijaye area of Lagos State.
After her training by one of the best fashion designers in Opebi area of Lagos State, Roseline teamed up with Kayode, her lover of four years, who actually introduced her to the job she later derived joy and sense of fulfilment.
However a visit by one of her customers, simply called ‘Aunty Bimbo,’ who brought lucrative jobs for her, changed the course of her life. Bimbo, who claimed to have a boutique in Italy, was a big customer to her anytime she visited and within few months they became glued together.
It was during one of her usual visits that the idea of going to Italy to become a notable fashion designer was sold to her and by the time she discussed with her would-be husband, who was sharing same shop with her, he was happy that at last opportunity has come their way to make it big outside the country.
According to Roseline, Kayode did not think twice when he encouraged her that they should mop-up all they had, in terms of cash, to make the journey a successful one. “At the last moment, we were able to raise about N800, 000, which I gave aunty Bimbo to perfect all the travelling documents, excluding another N200, 000 which I changed to dollar on the eve of our departure from Nigeria.”
It was a smooth journey from Nigeria to Libya where they were expected to cross the Mediterranean Sea through a big boat. This is where the sojourn to the world of unknown started for Roseline.
After a lot of frustration and narrow escape from security officers, Bimbo eventually led her to the expected boat that would take her to the shore of Italy. That was the last she saw her.
“When I entered the boat, we were so plenty that l wondered if l had not willingly signed my death warrant. It was all a sea of heads because everything was dark and people just find a seat through the help of an agent with a touch light.”
Roseline joined others and in the wee hour of the day the ship was in the middle of the sea to its destination. Suddenly there was commotion in the boat and heads were been knocked against each other in the full to capacity boat carrying about five hundred passengers. In the confusion that followed, she slipped to the ground.
Roseline could not believe her imagination when faintly she was hearing a lot of noises and by the time she opened her eye, she was on a small hard bed at a refugee camp where she was carried to after their boat torpedoed on the sea. She was among the 10 survivors; others were drowned and became feast to the fishes on the high sea. Her survival at the sea gave her the second chance to tell her story.
“For hours l did not know where l was, very weak and confused. I thought l was dreaming until a doctor came to give me an injection. That was when l realised l was not in a trance.”
After three weeks at the refugee camp, Roseline and few others were sold by the Army officers who have captured a lot of immigrants on the sea to a woman who came to the camp often to buy people and resell them to farmers in the hinterland of Libya. There and then, Roseline’s second missionary journey into the unknown world commenced.
“The experience l had on the cotton farm that l was sold to was better imagined than told. I could not speak their language and none can speak English either; this compounded my problem. There was no dull moment. l could not bear the agony on the farm as a woman working for twelve hours a day with only little time to eat.
“Suddenly my body could no longer cope and l fainted. That led me to another journey into what l will call the wilderness, which eventually paved way for my final exit from the trouble l put myself.”
If Roseline was lucky, Hellen Efosa was not. She was lured to Libya with a promise of a better future where she was expected to work for a business woman who owned a big boutique, which later became a farce. She was lured to prostitution as she later knew when she got to Libya where she became a sex slave.
“We are six in number sold from the refugee camp by the army. The woman who bought us also sold us to some guys who are like the yahoo boys in Nigeria. They are always smoking, drinking and had marathon sex with their victims
“The house was like a big bungalow with a big garden, we were not allowed to come out. We only eat and subjected to marathon sex by any of the five boys in the house. When they are going out, they chained us to a big bed and a security officer was engaged to monitor our movement.
“More annoying was that if any of us was on her period, her mouth was turned to depot of sperms in a brutal way.”
Hellen lamented that as soon as any of them gives up due to stress from marathon sex, the body of such girls is dumped at a nearby dumping site at night and another replacement will come the following day through same source.
“I was dumped like this one evening after l passed out due to marathon sex from five different men. A security officer who took me to the hospital said one of the scavengers on the refuse site reported the case to the police and it was in the hospital that l eventually regained consciousness.” she lamented
Miss Chisom Johnson, who left Nigeria in 2014, was among the 120 Nigerians stranded in Libya who were brought home last November via Al Buraq air.
She regretted her action of chasing the shadow outside the shores of the country, recalling that she was deceived that a job as a stylist was waiting for her in Germany
According to her, “there are 20 of us in the team and we were promised that we would fly to Germany as stylists but after two weeks, we found ourselves in Niger Republic.
She explained that after three weeks they were in Libya where their Madam told them that they cannot cross over but have to be prostitutes in order to refund her money which was N1.4 million.
“I resorted to fervent prayers and pleaded with our Madam that it was a taboo in our family to prostitute because the consequence would be dire. She eventually agreed with me to work in a restaurant where l refunded her money
“Immediately l finished paying her money, l started working on my own to get some money but my madam organised my kidnap and l was bailed by her with about N650, 000 and she doubled the amount and insisted that l must pay her N1.3 million which l did at last by doing all sorts of works.”
Chisom, who was in tears, noted that his four years in search of greener pasture was a disaster and that she was lucky to have been returned home alive because others did not have the opportunity to tell their stories.
“I want to beg those people who think that it was rosy over there to think twice; they should resist all temptations because they may not be lucky as we are. There is freedom in Nigeria; if you are hardworking; you can break through. Over there, there was no freedom and we cannot keep our money in the bank. This gave us out as prey to hoodlums who cashed in on our predicament to often rob us of our money with impunity.”
The above tales of agony, frustration, slavery and death are the experience which Nigerian youths are passing through in their quest to go to Europe through illegal means.
If the above victims were able to tell their stories, the 26 Nigerian girls that died in the Mediterranean Sea on November 3rd 2017 and thousands of others that were buried in hollow of the sea cannot.
Speaking at the South City of Salerno, after a funeral was held for the victims, the Director UN Migration Agency IOM for Mediterranean, Federico Soda, pointed out that the 26 bodies were retrieved from the sea on Nov. 3rd by a Spanish rescue ship while 64 people were unaccounted for and feared lost.
The Nation gathered that the Italian government has worked with the Libya authorities to block migrants from leaving the North Africans states, leading to the situation in which many perished in the sea and many refugees and migrants are trapped in perilous conditions in Libya.
According to IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre, at least 2,242 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean sea from Jan 1 to Dec.2018. These immigrants passed through Central, Eastern and Western Mediterranean route. In 2017, 2,853 deaths were recorded.
In 2016 about 181,436 illegal migrants from 11 countries from Africa with Nigeria accounting for 37,551 stormed European countries. In 2017, with a total of about 11,9369 illegal migrants, 18,158 are Nigerians and in 2018, with about 23,370 illegal migrants, 1,250 are Nigerians.
Two schools of thought have emerged on the reason behind the alarming rate of Nigerian youths risking their lives by going to Europe in search of greener pasture through the Mediterranean and the desert. The first school of thoughts heaped the blame on the alarming rate of unemployment among Nigerian youths, particularly university graduates, who are trooping out of the school without any job to fall on as a means of their livelihood.
The other argued that the porosity of Nigerian borders gives room for all shady deals, which include human trafficking and illegal migration through some of the neigbouring countries like Republic of Benin and Niger.
Speaking to The Nation, a human right activist, Comrade Mark Adebayo, put the blame squarely at the door step of the federal government that has bluntly refused to put in place a mechanism that will give jobs for teeming Nigerian youths who are frustrated after many years of graduation from the university.
Adebayo argued that aside this, all the security agencies that are saddled with the responsibility to monitor the nation’s borders have failed to live up to expectation and this has encouraged all internal saboteurs who are feeding fat on human trafficking to have a free day.
Adebayo therefore called on the federal government to urgently put in place mechanism that will give employment opportunity to all those that have been airlifted home noting that aggressive enlightenment campaign should be embarked upon to discourage those who are tricked into this illegal journey.
Perhaps irked by the alarming rate of migration through illegal sea route, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Nigeria, recently raised alarm that something urgent must be done to checkmate this ugly trend.
Against this backdrop, in December 2018, IOM organised a training for government officials in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Employment on the availability of Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) to assist the intending travelers of the needed information
The training was sponsored by the European Union (EU) within the framework of the “European Union Trust Fund and IOM initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in Nigeria.”
Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Frantz Celestin, the IOM chief of Mission in Nigeria noted that it was expedient to organise the training at a time when the numbers of deaths and those suffering exploitation and abuse along the Central Mediterranean migration route are at an alarming rate.
According to him, “It is worthy to note that thousands of Nigerian migrants are stranded in Libya, living in terrible conditions, with many desirous of the opportunity to return home.
“From April 2017 to October 2018, over 10,000 Nigerian migrants stranded in Libya and Niger have been assisted by IOM to return to Nigeria.
Celestin observed with dismay that many migrants have embarked on irregular migration with little or no accurate information about the legal migration process and the risks inherent in the journey.
“Permit me to say that most of these migrants embarked on this perilous journey because they received little or no information about the legal migration process, the risks inherent in irregular migration, the living and working conditions, and the support and redress services available at destination countries.
“In the absence of accurate information on legal migration procedures and requirements, risks of irregular migration, job advisories and general information and support on welfare and social protection, potential and returning migrants are bound to fall victim to fraudulent migration brokers/recruitment agencies, who usually capitalise on the vulnerabilities of their victims’ desire or ambition for exploitation.
Celestin pointed out that the training was designed “To provide services for the empowerment and protection of migrants, staff of MRCs” as well as build capacity of the participants on a wide range of issues, such as relevant laws and procedures relating to migration and migrants’ rights and responsibilities.” he said.
However, equally worried, President Muhammadu Buhari explained that the situation on ground has called for concerted efforts from within and outside the country to curb the menace.
The president, who disclosed this when he hosted Chairman of the African Union Commission, Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, at the Presidential Villa, noted that the Lake Chad, which provided a means of livelihood to several millions of people in four countries- Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria- has now been reduced to ten per cent of its original size due to the impact of climate change.
Buhari explained that “People who depended on the lake for fishing, farming, animal husbandry and many others have been thrown into dire straits. That is one of the reasons youths now dare the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean sea, to seek greener pastures in Europe. But helping to recharge Lake Chad will help a great deal in curbing irregular migration.”
The President lamented that the size of the country and resources available places a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders, adding that all hands are on deck to curb the menace.
Speaking recently in Ibadan, the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has challenged the youths to look inward for their livelihood instead of embarking on a perilous journey on the sea.
Dabiri-Erewa, who said that the Federal Government has put in place many openings and opportunities for empowerment, said in spite of the hopeless situation being painted of the country, irregular migration damaged the national reputation
According to her, the dangers and risks involved in illegal migration are more than the problems one can possibly face in Nigeria. “If you go to see them, there is no human being that will not cry; but in spite of the efforts, many Nigerians are still languishing in Libya cells.”
She lamented that “One girl said she was 14 years old and about 40 people have slept with her; they used men as slaves, they used them on the farms.
“There are still underground cells we could not reach then; so, up till now, we still have many Nigerians in Libya cells.”
While the people have the liberty to move from one place to the other, Dabiri-Erewa appealed to Nigerians not to go near those countries like Libya, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, “but if you want to go, go legally.”
According to her, illegal migration is not purely a Nigerian problem, but that of the continent, as thousands of Africans stake their lives as they venture on a boat journey in search of what they think will be a better and easier living standard. “Unfortunately, it is a journey that begins with hope but ends with despair.
“It is painful that Nigeria ranks highest in the statistics of irregular migration; communities have lost able bodied youths, valuable assets and properties to irregular migration,” she said.
