By TOBORE OVUORIE – May 7, 2018
… say ‘we were better off as slaves’
- I may commit suicide – 23-yr-old Gift
- We’re trying our best for the returnees – NAPTIP
Faced by stigmatisation, economic hardship and rejection by family members, many distraught human trafficking survivors, recently rescued from the Libyan serfdom, have called on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to return them to their slave masters, saying they were better off as slaves.
A nationwide investigation by The Point on the condition of living of the returnees revealed that they had been turned down by family members, who regarded them as failures and burdens. Almost a year after returning to Nigeria, many of the returnees are jobless and socially displaced.
If President Buhari can assure me that he will return me to Libya, where life is good and jobs are available, I will vote for him in February 2019, before my departure
Speaking with our correspondent, one of the returnees, 23-year old Gift Peter, said she was contemplating suicide, owing to excruciating hardship. She was 20 years old when trafficked by her uncle’s wife on February 5, 2016. She is one of the 6,300 Nigerian migrants the International Organisation for Migration repatriated to Nigeria in the last 11 months. But life, she said, had been unpleasant for her since returning to Agbor, her hometown in Delta State. Gift returned in 2017 with a baby boy she conceived during her work as a sex slave to a Nigerian woman in Libya. After so much suffering and giving birth to a child alone as a prisoner in Isis’ camp (she was caught in the war in Sirit, Libya), her efforts to begin life afresh had been fruitless. She said her joy of returning to the country had been cut short by rejection and stigmatisation from family and friends. She had been jobless since arriving Nigeria, she said.
Recounting her ordeal, another returnee, who simply identified herself as Tumininu, cursed the day she landed on the Nigerian shores, following her rescue from the Libyan slave market. She said since she was brought back from Libya last year, life had been extremely tough, turning her to a practical beggar.
“I have suffered so much rejection since arriving Nigeria. My mother and sisters are the only persons who haven’t stigmatised me. I have become a laughing stock in my neighbourhood, and I don’t mind now, returning to the Libyan hardship,” she said, amid sobs.
Tumininu, who lives in Ijegun in the Lagos outskirts, recalled how she was tricked to embark on the tortuous journey to Libya and how she suffered a great deal. She said they were three young ladies on the journey.
“It all began in February 2016. I am a singer and was fond of singing alone at home. That was how Iya Anjola, my mum’s friend, came and advised my mum to release me to her, that she would sponsor me abroad, where my singing talent would be developed and I would be sending home money to change the poor condition of our family,” she said.
Even as a slave in Libya, I was better off than a free-born in Nigeria. We agreed to be rescued on the assurances given us that we would be rehabilitated in Nigeria, only for them to bring us here, feed us for a few weeks and throw us into the streets
She added that Iya Anjola asked them to source for N40,000, needed for the ‘life-changing journey’. Thirty thousand naira out of the money was given to her, while Tumininu was to give N10, 000 to Iya Anjola’s friend, who would take her to Mile 12 to board the bus to Kano.
Tumininu further recalled that she woke up very excited on the departure day, happy that she would be entering an aircraft for the first time in her life. However, they boarded a commercial bus from Lagos to Kano, where she was told they were to catch a flight to Libya.
But to her amazement, the team continued their journey to Libya by road. At first, they ended up at what is commonly called ‘Nigeria Bridge’, and boarded a bike to cross to Niger.
In Libya, she said she went through hell in the hands of Libya-based Nigerian slave merchants, who pushed her from one person to the other, amidst hard labour until she regained her freedom.
Tunmininu said in Libya, however, medical treatment was free and that she was able to afford her daily square meals too, unlike in Nigeria where she barely feeds well and is wracked by various diseases, owing to her poor state.
“In Libya, I underwent surgery for free but here, when I took ill and went to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, I was billed N150,000 and I virtually fled,” she lamented. She, as such, pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari, to assist in returning her to Libya, saying she had been displaced in Nigeria, her home-country.
“If President Buhari can assure me that he will return me to Libya, where life is good and jobs are available, I will vote for him in February 2019, before my departure,” she said.
Recalling his ordeal, too, another returnee in Benin, Edo State, Larry Udugba, said his father had driven him out of the family house since his return from Libya, calling him ’a failure and never-do-well.’
Twenty-eight-year old Udugba said he paid N70, 000 to a certain middleman, who assisted him to get to Libya, only to be sold as a slave there.
“Even as a slave in Libya, I was better off than a free-born in Nigeria. We agreed to be rescued on the assurances given us that we would be rehabilitated in Nigeria, only for them to bring us here, feed us for a few weeks and throw us into the streets,” Udugba lamented.
He said, while out in the cold, some vagrants had tried to lure him into armed robbery, but that, guided by his Christian background, he shunned the temptation.
Udugba noted that a year after their return, most of the Libyan returnees in Edo State had become worsted by lack of job and social rejection.
‘MY CHILD CAN NEVER MARRY A LIBYAN RETURNEE’
Survivors of the Libyan slave market, who are back home, are not only rejected and stigmatised by friends and families alone. The society, particularly parents, say they wouldn’t allow their children to marry them, The Point investigations have also revealed.
Mrs. Ayo Lawal, a trader in Lagos, in an interview with our correspondent, simply profiled them as unsuitable for marriage.
“I will not allow my child to marry any of them because we heard it is dirty work they went to do there. Dirty work like prostitution; so many different men would have had intercourse with the ladies from Libya. As a Christian, I can’t allow my child marry such a person,” Lawal said.
Also, Mrs. Tola Opaleye, a trader popularly known as Iya Bukky in Akute, Ogun State, vehemently kicked against any union between her daughter and a male Libyan returnee.
She said, “I won’t accept it. We heard in the news and over the TV the kind of work the Libya returnees do over there. We heard they prostitute themselves through homosexual practices, where males and males have intercourse, and females do the same thing. Even dogs sleep with them. Are those the kind of persons my daughter should bring home as a husband? It’s not possible.
“Anyone who brings such home as a spouse should know it is a dog he/she has brought home. And they may have contracted all manner of infections before being deported to Nigeria. So, they will start spreading it all over the place. No, I can’t allow my child to marry any of them.”
For Olamide Timothy, an undergraduate, residing in Abeokuta, Ogun State, getting married to a survivor is an impossible mission.
“According to what I am hearing about them, I don’t think I can marry any of them. Because some among them may have been infected with HIV due to the kind of work they did over there before returning to Nigeria,” she said.
Asked what would happen if she only got to know after the wedding, she exclaimed, “Haaa! If we haven’t had anything in common, I can still break up the marriage.”
STORIES OF NEGLECT, STIGMATISATION EXAGGERATED – NAPTIP
In its reaction, however, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons, said tales of social neglect and stigmatisation of Libyan returnees had been largely exaggerated, adding that the agency did its best to rehabilitate the returnees and integrate them into the society.
Commander, NAPTIP Lagos, Mrs. Kehinde Akomolafe, said, “I can confirm to you that survivors in NAPTIP’s care have been able to live normal lives, as they are getting married and having children for their husbands.”
Reacting too, a Consultant Psychiatrist and Head, Psychiatry, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Bolanle Ola, said human trafficking survivors were credible people who were ready to contribute to the development of the society.
“If veterans of the Vietnam War could be fully rehabilitated, who says other people cannot? I mean, with full comprehensive health and policy backing, they have a very high potential to be fully rehabilitated into the community,” he said.
He, however, advised that anti-trafficking agencies should be well equipped by the Nigerian government and that proper budgetary allocations be created for them. He called on the media to also provide credible information to the masses so that the society wouldn’t be afraid of human trafficking survivors, but support them.
“There is nothing to really fear when all these relevant things are provided. Early recognition of symptoms in returnees to access treatment will go a long way to help. There should be campaign against stigma as that is a huge challenge in people seeking mental health care. The media also should follow the World health Organisation’s guidelines in carrying out their reports in order to ensure they too don’t stigmatise survivors of such traumatic events,” Ola advised.
BLAME GOVT, SAYS CACOL
Rationalising the plight of the returnees, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Festus Keyamo, said the returnees were already being profiled by the society. Anyone who has gone through such experience, he noted, was perceived to be damaged psychologically and won’t make good partners. He emphasised that survivors could still live normal
lives.
“We should ensure, as a society, that we protect their identities and reintegrate them back to the society gradually, and they would become like us, living normal lives,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership has slammed the Federal Government for not providing a conducive environment for the development of youths in the country, generally.
The group blamed the government for the harsh economic situation in the country, which it said caused the tragedy, adding that the government, at both federal and state levels, must tackle the rising rate of unemployment in the country to curb the menace of human
trafficking.
CACOL Director, Comrade Debo Adeniran, in an interview with our correspondent, said, “The problems of illegal migration and trafficking are an accumulated issue. We have a high population of children and youths in this country and we are not planning for their future. Workplaces are winding up and no new jobs are
springing up.
“This is why people want to leave and look for the proverbial ‘greener pastures.’”
