Officials say they discovered seven bodies of African migrants who died from suffocation after being locked for two days in a refrigerated truck that was abandoned by people smugglers on the Libyan coast.
Adel Mostafa, an anti-illegal migration official in Tripoli, said that 28 others, including five women, were rescued on Sunday when the truck was discovered at Garabulli, a town some 50 km east of Tripoli that is a common departure point for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
“We got a call from a civilian who reported that he could hear voices coming from a truck, which he believed contained Africans, based on their language,” Mostafa said.
The survivors said they had been left there by smugglers, according to Hosni Abu Ayana, a second official at the Tripoli detention centre to which they were brought.
The migrants said the truck driver left the vehicle at the side of the road after unknown gunmen began firing at the tyres.
Libya is the main gateway for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea.
The North African country slipped into turmoil after its 2011 uprising and migrant smugglers operate with impunity, packing people onto ill-equipped boats that often sink or break down.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said 1,268 Nigerians had voluntarily returned from Libya from December 15, 2016 to May 16, 2017.
Alhaji Mustapha Maihaja, the Director General, NEMA, made the disclosure while receiving a fresh batch of 258 Nigerians who arrived on Tuesday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the returnees arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, aboard a chartered Libya Airlines Airbus A330-200 with registration number 5A-LAU at about 8:30pm.
They were received at the Hajj Camp area of the airport by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the National Agency for the Protection of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Police.
Also on ground to receive them were officials of NEMA, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
Maihaja, who was represented by Dr Onimode Bandele, the Deputy Director, Search and Rescue, said the fresh returnees came along with 20 children and infants.
He said the returnees were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya.
According to him, another batch of Nigerians is expected back on May 25, and the exercise will continue as long as those stranded in Libya are willing to return home.
“Since December 2016, we have been able to bring back 1,268 Nigerians and the exercise will continue in collaboration with the IOM.
“The Federal Government is collaborating with the various state governments to rehabilitate and reintegrate the returnees,” he said.
Also speaking, Ms Julia Burpee, Public Information Officer, IOM, said the organisation had facilitated the return of over 7,000 Nigerians from various countries in the past 16 years.
She said the organisation would assist the returnees to get back on their feet and would provide assistance to others willing to leave the North African country.
No fewer than 258 more Nigerian returnees from Libya arrived the country on Thursday aboard a chartered Airbus A330-200 with registration mark 5A-LAT operated by Libya Airlines.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the aircraft landed about 9:43pm at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The 258 voluntary returnees, who include four children and one infant. were made up of of 233 males, 25 females..
Their return was facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian embassy in Libya.
They were received at the Hajj Camp area of the airport by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the National Agency for the Protection of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Police.
Addressing newsmen, Ms Julie Okah-Donli, the newly appointed Director-General of NAPTIP, said the agency was particularly interested in those that were trafficked.
“After the profiling have been done, for those that have been trafficked, we will take them away to our shelters,” she said.
According to her, the agency is working with the international community to clamp down on the trafficking syndicate.
“They are doing their investigation and very soon we will be able to come out with effective results,” she said.
Also, Dr Onimode Bandele, Director, Search and Rescue, NEMA, said some of the returnees had medical issues.
He said some of them were suffering from depression and malnutrition, while one person sustained gun injury.
Almost 200 people are feared to have died in two Mediterranean Sea migrant shipwrecks during the weekend, according to reports on Monday.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Libya said that seven people were rescued off the north-western city of Zawiya, and one of them said 113 others were missing.
The information was posted on Twitter and confirmed by an IOM Spokesman in Rome, Flavio Di Giacomo.
Separately, 80 people died on Saturday after the rubber dinghy they were travelling on overturned, according to the ANSA news agency, which sourced its report from survivors’ accounts to Italian prosecutors.
The sea channel between Italy and Libya is the world’s busiest and most dangerous sea migration route.
More than 6,600 people were rescued there between Friday and Sunday.
On Sunday, the Head of the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, Filippo Grandi, said more than 1,150 people died or went missing since the start of the year in sea crossings to Europe.
Grandi added that the mortality rate on the Libya-Italy route was one in 35.
He praised efforts by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), noting they had carried out one third of rescue operations since January 1, and renewed calls for EU authorities to open legal migration channels to spare people from dangerous sea journeys.
NGO involvement in sea rescues has become controversial since an Italian prosecutor accused them of acting in cahoots with Libyan people smugglers.
The prosecutor says he has suspicions but no proof; the NGOs have rejected all charges.
The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali , has called on Ministers of Defence of Sahel-Sahara states to work closely in dealing with the growing threat of terror and religious extremism in the region.
Dan-Ali made the made the call at the 6th annual meeting of the ministers of defence of Sahel-Sahara states in Abidjan, a statement by Col. Aliyu Gusau, his Public Relations Officer, said.
The minister, however, noted that good governance was key to addressing security challenges across Africa.
Dan-Ali, who also called for provision of job opportunities for youths to enable them have better means of livelihood, said this would check exposure to cyber crime which often made them potential recruits for terrorists.
He gave an assurance that Nigeria was committed to the realisation of the objectives of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States CEN-SAD.
Nigeria also endorsed the establishment of Regional Counter Terrorism Centre with headquarters in Egypt, saying it would support the initiative.
The CEN-SAD ministers also unanimously agreed Nigeria should host its 7th meeting in 2018.
CEN-SAD, which was established in February 1998 by six countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Niger and Sudan, now has 27 members.
One of its main goals is to achieve economic unity through the implementation of the free movement of people and goods in order to make the area occupied by member states a free trade area.
No fewer than 253 more Nigerians voluntarily returned from Libya on Tuesday aboard a chartered Airbus A330-200 with registration mark 5A-LAT operated by Libya Airlines
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the aircraft landed about 6.45pm at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The returnees were made up of of 102 males, 140 females, six children and five infants.
They were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian embassy in Libya.
The returnees were received at the Hajj Camp area of the airport by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) , the National Agency for the Protection of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Police.
Also on ground to receive them were officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
Addressing newsmen, Dr Onimode Bandele, Director, Search and Rescue, NEMA, said two of the returnees had medical issues.
According to him, one of them was suffering from depression, while the other had severe burns requiring surgical operation.
He said :”Let’s thank God that these ones have returned safely because Libya is not what it used to be.
“As a government, our advice is that young Nigerians should strive to work hard and tap into vast opportunities available in the country instead of seeking greener pastures elsewhere. ”
Bandele said some state governments had initiated various programmes to rehabilitate and reintegrate the returnees back into the society.
He said NEMA would continue to work with IOM to bring back Nigerians willing to return, adding that the programme was continuous.
Speaking to newsmen, the returnee who suffered the severe burns on her face said she arrived Libya in February after making a payment of N300, 000 to her traffickers.
She told newsmen that she suffered the injury while working for her “madam” who only went to dump her at the hospital where she was abandoned.
The returnee, therefore, appealed to the government for assistance to carry out a reconstructive surgery on her face.
NAN reports that a total of 236 Nigerians had in March voluntarily returned from the North African country where they had been stranded enroute Europe.
Her sitting posture cast the image of a peacock in repose. Her eyes appear lost in memory as she recalled the horrific details of life in a sex enclave and subsequent detention in a Libyan migrant cell.
“I used to have a long wavy hair. The female guards cut it off together with the extension I was wearing when I got to the Mitiga prison in Tripoli. Soldiers raided our brothel and I was captured,” she recalled, running her fingers through the short thread on her head.
Anita, 27, is the eldest of 19 girls sheltered at a facility for migrant and displaced persons managed by the Web of Hearts Foundation in Lagos. The girls are among the migrants who voluntarily returned from Libya on the 23rd of March, this year.
Describing life in the migrants cell as not fit for humans, she blurted out: “We were stripped naked and asked to leap like frogs. The guards wore a glove and inserted their hands into our private parts to be sure we were not hiding anything. They took my money and jewelry. I came home dry and empty.”
Recalling how she was trafficked into forced prostitution in Libya, Anita said she was persuaded by a friend, who met a woman that promised a job for girls as house helps in Germany. Delighted by the prospect of earning forex, she sold off her clothing and accessories business to prepare for the trip. Subsequently, the woman who gave them the offer took them to a shrine in Benin to swear an oath which would bind them to repaying the travel expenses when they get to Europe. From Edo State, they set out for Abuja and slept in a gas station. Three other girls joined them.
Suspicion set in when they were taken from Abuja to a mud house in Kano, where they spent three days with no passport or travelling documents in sight. Also, they were barred from asking questions and their phones seized. The reality then set in that they would make the journey to Europe by road through the desert and then cross the Mediterranean Sea to access Italy before finally getting to Germany. The traffickers, now working with a network of other people, placed the five girls on a motor bike, which conveyed them to Agadex in Niger Republic. They bribed their way through the borders and got packed into a Hilux van carrying about 40 persons to Libya, travelling through the desert in a sweltering weather.
“We drank water from a well with a dead goat in it. Whenever anyone fell from the van, nobody bothered to wait to pick them up. We met militias at check points and we were forced to part with the money we had. The men among us were dragged and beaten,” Anita recalled as a mist gathered in the corner of her eyes.
Dusty and tired from the travails of a tortuous journey which saw them travelling through day and night in the desert for a week, they made a stop at Sabha, an oasis city in southwestern Libya reputed to be the heart of Libya’s smuggling and human trafficking network.
They had a bath and were fed with rice and egg. Soon, the girls drifted into sleep and were awoken by the sounds from speakers blaring music. Looking through the window, they saw girls clad in scanty dresses with men coming in and going out. They were shaken to a rude awakening when the woman who took them to a shrine in Edo State came in to say they had reached their final destination and would join the other girls the next day to work as sex workers.
“She said we can’t make money for ourselves until we pay back 5,000 Libya Dinar to offset the cost of the journey. She called men to beat up any girl who refused to work. A girl poisoned herself to death. We woke her up one morning and saw her foaming in the mouth. Her corpse was thrown into the Medditerean Sea.
“Sometimes we were made to sleep with 10 to 15 men in a day. Our madam charged 10 Dinars for a ‘short round’ from the men. We felt sick often and we experienced pains in our womb,” Anita bitterly cried. In December, soldiers raided their abode and they were taken to a migrant centre where she spent three months before being repatriated to Nigeria with the help of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
‘There is no mercy outside Nigeria’
Nigerian ladies arriving from Libya last month
Twenty three-year-old Aramide spoke with a brittle temperament, measuring her speech in a hoarse tone. Her journey as a sex worker began when a neigbour’s friend in Lagos informed her of a job opportunity in Malaysia as a maid.
As a single mother with an 18-month-old-baby, she jumped at the offer, not minding the fact that she would have to make the journey through the desert.
“My mum went to pray in a church and the pastor said I should proceed. On June 3, 2016, I joined two other girls and we proceeded to Kano, rode a bike to Niger and joined an overpacked Hilux van at Agadax heading for Qatrum in Libya. We travelled for a week, drinking water used in feeding camels and begging for food. When people fell and died in the desert, we moved on like nothing happened,” she said.
Aramide, who dropped out of secondary school after she got pregnant, further explained;
“I was housed with a Nigerian man in Qatrum. I cleaned his house and he had sex with me every night for two weeks. A woman came to pick me from there to Sabha and I was taken to a ‘connection’ house. I had to sleep with 10 men a day. When I tried to escape, I was stabbed at the back.”
The ‘connection’ house, a brothel, it was learnt, is a narrow long room where about 15 persons have their bed space with curtains used as walls for demarcation. The girls only wore female condoms for protection against STI. She was into forced prostitution for seven months before the Arab police busted their arcade on the 14th of January and she was taken to a migrant detention camp. Like Anita, she arrived in Lagos on the 23rd of March this year and had been undergoing psychotherapy at the Web of Hearts Foundation facility in Lagos.
For men and women considering taking a trip through the desert in search of greener pastures, she has a message: “Don’t trust anyone, even your blood relations. Parents were selling their children. Even if there’s a passport and someone wants to take you to travel, it’s a lie. There is no mercy outside Nigeria”, she stated.
Mrs Bose Aggrey is the founder of Web of Hearts Foundation, an NGO creating a platform for migrants’ reintegration into the society. Sharing her experience in catering to the girls so far, she said: “My eyes have been opened to the issue of illegal migration as a front burner which government must address. We must create opportunities within our society that open our people to see what good is out here.
“With the stories we have heard from these returnees, you find out that Nigeria is better than a country like Libya. Immigrants are not accepted in terms of religion and colour. There is a slave master mentality which has opened our youths to being sexually abused and morally debased. A whole lot can be done at the local level to ensure that our youths are not lured into illegal migration by traffickers,” she stated.
Data showing Nigeria as a top source.
According to the Global Report on trafficking in persons published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Libya is a destination and transit country for men and women from sub-Sharan Africa and Asia subjected to forced labour and forced prostitution. The report further states that trafficking networks reach into Libya from Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and other sub-Sahara. These networks subject migrants to forced labour and forced prostitution following fraudulent recruitment, confiscation of identity and travel documents, withholding or nonpayment of wages and debt bondage.
Data Showing pattern of Nigerian victims of human trafficking by EU country. Credit-CodeforAfrica
Nigeria enacted a law in 2003 prohibiting trafficking in persons and also established the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP). However, owing to Nigeria’s porous borders, women and children continue to be trafficked within and beyond the country for forced labour and sexual exploitation. Children are also sold for money. Equally, NAPTIT reported that Nigerians make up 60-80 percent of girls who are trafficked for sex trade in Europe.
Also, Data from EuroStat shows that a total of 1322 Nigerian citizens were trafficked to EU between 2010 and 2012, making Nigeria the top source country for non-EU victims of human trafficking. Equally, EU members registered 267 Nigerians who were prosecuted for human trafficking in the same time lapse. The overall gender distribution of reported prosecuted traffickers is reported as 71 percent male and 27 percent female.
About 155 Nigerians yesterday arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, from Libya after failing to transit through the war-torn North African country to Europe.
The returnees, mainly in their 20s and 30s, were picked after negotiation from various prisons and detention camps in Libya by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Deputy Director (Search and Rescue) of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Dr. Bandele Onimode said one of the returnees had paralysis, the other a psychiatric case and the third is nursing a minor ailment.
Five migrants were found dead in the sea off Libya on Thursday after the boats they were travelling in sank, likely carrying hundreds more to their deaths, an aid organisation said.
Proactiva Open Arms, one of several groups operating in the area, said it was notified that an inflatable boat was sinking and found another going down shortly afterwards.
“We brought on board five corpses recovered from the sea, but no lives. It is a harsh reality check of the suffering here that is invisible in Europe’’, the group wrote on Facebook.
Given the size of the boats, which are often packed with people by smugglers in Libya, there were probably more than 100 people in each, Proactiva spokeswoman Laura Lanuza said.
A spokesperson for Italy’s coast guard, which coordinates and participates in rescues, confirmed the five bodies were on board Proactiva’s ship, the Golfo Azzurro, which he said would remain in the area in case of any emergency calls.
A rising number of migrants are attempting to cross the central Mediterranean this year after a deal between the European Union and Turkey largely shut down a route to Greece.
A total of 559 deaths have been recorded in the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. About 5,000 were recorded for the whole of 2016.
The Presidency on Friday said that another 180 Nigerians are expected back in Nigeria from Libya on Tuesday.
The trip back to Nigeria on Tuesday will be the third batch of Nigerians that will be returning from Libya in the last one month. 171 Nigerians had returned on February 21 while 161 returned on February 14.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, spoke at the Presidential Villa while receiving the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons Commission, Sadiya Farouk.
Dabiri-Erewa said that the Federal Government was expecting more migrants back in the country with the current happenings around the world.
Dabiri said her office would be working with the Commission to sensitise Nigerians on the need to stay away from some countries.
She said: “Your visit is timely because we expect more migrants back home. In fact, 180 Nigerians are expected back from Libya on Tuesday. With what is going on around the world, it is going to be worse. We will work with your commission to continue to sensitise Nigerians on the need for them to know that some places are not just worth it,” she added.
Speaking earlier, Sadiya Farouk commended Dabiri for her efforts towards ensuring that Nigerians in diaspora are treated with dignity.
She condemned the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa and pledged her commitment to a sustained advocacy to end what she described as unwarranted attacks.
She promised to work with Dabiri to educate Nigerians on the dangers of irregular migration.
She said: “These programmes will better inform Nigerians on their options so they can make informed decision and develop realistic expectations when traveling outside the country.
“It is important to note that the issue of sensitisation is an offshoot of the National Migration Dialogue.
“The dialogue highlighted the need to establish a migration desk in all states and local governments which will provide sensitisation from the grassroots level in order to curb the root causes of irregular migration.”
She said the commission has also developed a return, re-admission and reintegration programme which provides referrals to settlement services for returnees.
To cater for returnees, Farouk said the commission has also developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), for the conduct of return, readmission and reintegration of Nigerians.
“What is currently obtainable is an adhoc approach which is not sustainable.
“The SOP when operationalised, will ensure that the returning Nigerian migrants are adequately reintegrated into the society.
“The SOP has been validated by the relevant stakeholders but yet to be institutionalised. We therefore seek your partnership to ensure the operationalisation,” she said.
