Monday, January 20, 2025 - Every time I heard about human trafficking, I never thought I would be involved. I never thought I would be one of the people anyone will point to as being a part of the trade. But here I am, a Libya returnee. Abi, isn’t that what you journalists say we are? First, I am a graduate of economics from one of our state universities. When I say state, you know we pay plenty of money in state universities, so that also tells you I am not completely disadvantaged.
But after NYSC five years ago, there was no job anywhere, no single interview,
no part-time sef. It was one rejection after another, one long queue of 5, 000
candidates for a two-people vacancy or 70, 000 candidates for a three-man
vacancy.
I got tired. I got fed up with handouts. I tried hairdressing, I mean, I
learned to weave and fix hair. I learned a bit of dressmaking, too but I didn’t
make much of it. I even wanted to teach, the schools didn’t want economic
teachers and where I could get a job in government schools, the long process –
“come today, come tomorrow” – for more than nine months and the bureaucracy
just drove me away.
More so, you always have some men who want to sleep with you before they
even help you for anything. So, I was a ready candidate for any talk of
travelling abroad, even if the abroad is Ghana next door. I was ready. Then
this guy, one of the guys I met the days of coming and going from office to
office at Alausa, looking for connection for job, showed up.
He told me about Libya, he said I could get to Spain from Libya. Maid,
He said if I didn’t mind, I could start as a maid, then I could from there work
my way up. I agreed because being a maid in Spain is not the same as being a
maid in Nigeria, abi? I could earn money and send home to my people here. I
agreed, o. He then introduced me to another guy, Charles, who said he is an
agent. He (Charles) said he would collect his percentage when I start working
because he will be the one to get me passport, travel documents and all that. I
said “OK”, but I was also to raise some money for other logistics. Family I
told my family about it, my aunty and her husband, and they said, it was better
for me because they didn’t like the way I was always sleeping in the house.
So, they helped me to raise about N300k, which I promised to refund once
I settled in Spain. In my mind, I just thought, give or take, it will take me
say six months to one year to get them the money back. And they are good
people, this aunty and her husband. They tried for me. OK, o. So I contacted
Charles, I gave him part of the money and kept the rest because, somehow, I
felt that I should also have some money on me.
The journey to Libya almost took my life. From Kano to Agadez, I almost
died in the desert. I saw things that scared the hell out of me; I thought I
was losing my mind. Hmmn. I saw evil in the desert.
Human remains, people who didn’t make it to Libya, who died on the way.
Maybe I should just have died there because I thought the desert was hell. But
hell was Libya, hell was Libya! Not knowing that Charles was recruiting me for
prostitution, I got to Libya and immediately I set foot down from the lorry
that conveyed us through the desert, even before I was able to gather myself
together to say, “thank God I made it here as the first part of my journey”, I
was taken to one house and told to remove my clothes.
What! One Libyan woman, she told me and the other girls that came that we were
her property and that we must do as we were told, or we die! Chai! I was
thirsty. I was tired. I was not even standing well, and this woman was already
telling us to dress like ‘ashy?’ “My own has ended today!” I told myself. We
wanted food, something to drink, rest from the journey.
Then she said, “Ok, rest for today”. She gave us small rice and water and one
room for all of us, seven of us, to stay that first day.
Some of the old girls quickly told us to
obey, that these people will kill us if we didn’t obey, so the following day we
began work. Work was sex with men. See me, me that was avoiding sleeping with
men for work in Nigeria, now I will sleep with them as work in Libya. Why
didn’t I agree to do it in Nigeria and have a job and not have to consider
coming to Libya, why? That’s how we started o. That’s how I began to have sex
with men every day for survival. It was brutal! All my here…down here, torn to
pieces by these animals, no treatment, no saying give her time to heal…and they
want you in all sort of difficult positions. Can you imagine?
Sometimes, 20; sometimes, 25 men sleeping with you everyday. I became like raw
meat. The worst part is all the money went to madam; we did not see ‘sun shine’.
At one time I was begging for death.
Because how would I survive this for long? So I just turned off. One of the
girls gave me some ointment to lubricate, to make it easier for me because I
was just bleeding everyday, and madam did not care. After that, I removed my
mind from the men, I just spread, they will do, they will piss on you, pull
your hair, slap you, beat you, manhandle your breasts or put finger inside and
do many things. Those people are beasts!
They treated us like we were not human
beings as if we were animals who felt no pain, who didn’t get wounded or
something. Who will you complain to? Madam? You are joking! I did this for
close to two years and all I wanted to do was return home. Some of the girls
there didn’t want to come back. They still had dreams of sending money home to
their parents, they still thought that they will find a way to go to Spain or
Italy. They said life in Libya or anywhere was better than life in Nigeria.
Then one day, someone came to our place,
saying some Nigerian government officials were asking who wanted to go back to
Nigeria? I just jumped, I ran, I ran after the boy who came with that information. Where?
Where is the place? Where are the Nigerian people? I want to go home! I am
finally home!
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