Trafficking survivors ready to return to Libya

Trafficking survivors say their joy of returning to Nigeria from Libya is being cut short by rejection and stigmatization from family, friends and the society. They are ready to leave the country at whatever cost, again.

“If you travel and you didn’t bring money, your family won’t love you anymore. I used to support my family before leaving Nigeria. But when I returned, the first thing my mother said is you didn’t bring money but baby. No one agreed to help me”.

This is Gift Peter. She was 20 years old when trafficked by her uncle’s wife on February 5th, 2016. She is one of the 6,300 Nigerian migrants the International Organization for Migration (IOM) repatriated to Nigeria in the last 11 months. But life has been unpleasant for her since re-turning 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 birthing a child alone as a prisoner in Isis’ camp; caught in the war in Sirit, Libya, her efforts to begin life afresh have been fruitless. She says her joy of returning to the country has been cut short by rejection and stigmatization from family and friends. She has been jobless since arriving Nigeria. This too, has added to the depression she now struggles with.

National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP) says in Nigeria, the two most reported human trafficking cases are foreign travels which promote prostitution and em-ployment of children as domestic workers while inflicting grievous harm.

Most of these victims are women but children and men these days, now consist larger shares than they did 10 years ago. The anti-trafficking agency’s 2017 report states in the country, 0.1% of trafficked victims are men, while 25% are females. Globally, 51% of trafficked persons are females and 21% are males. The report indicates traffickers are often males but women com-prise a large number of convicted offenders.

Majority of Nigerian migrants undertake the risky journey in search of jobs in North Africa and Europe. IOM’s Missing Migrants Project states 2,834 migrants died at sea on the route between Libya and Italy in 2017. The Central Mediterranean Sea is one of the deadliest migration routes in the world. IOM says 315 have already perished since this year began. Travelers are sexually abused, robbed, and abducted on the Niger’s desert to Libya route and while crossing the sea to Italy.

Notwithstanding these hazards, European statistics indicates at least one person dies for every 35 persons arriving Europe. It states the number of illegal migrants from West Africa to Europe is still rising. FEBRUARY 25TH, 2016 They were three young ladies on the journey: Tunmininu, and two other dream chasers. They had traveled in a bus from Lagos, hoping to arrive Kano state to board the plane to Libya. They were eager to get to Libya rooted by the pursuit of their dreams: earning big bucks abroad.

They had thoroughly discussed and planned the journey in advance: Tunmininu, her mother and Iya Anjola- her mum’s friend. They had planned every phase of the journey: who was to be paid, how much and details of every stops. But Tunmininu hadn’t foreseen there was to be another bus ride after the first to Kano from Lagos. Lo and behold, on arriving Kano, they boarded an-other bus, instead of a plane. It began to dawn on her they could be in trouble. She only didn’t know how big the trouble was.

Hope merchants and preparations

It all began in February 2016 when Tunmininu at her domestic chores was singing like she al-ways does, this time, in the presence of