I Spent 2 Months On Road To Libya — Anambra Lady Trafficked By Facebook Friend
A 21-year-old lady from Anambra State tells TEMITOPE ADETUNJI how she was exploited for human trafficking in Libya
How did you get to Libya?
My name is Chika Obiakaeze, I am from Anambra State, and I am 21 years old. Before coming to Libya, I was learning tailoring.
The way I came to Libya was through an online introduction from a friend. She mentioned that her sister needed someone to stay with her abroad, taking care of the house while she went to work. She described the job as promising, with good pay. She provided her sister’s contact number, and I reached out to her. Her sister informed me that I would either find a cleaning job or a job in a hospital, involving domestic tasks or assisting white people in their homes.
I inquired about the legitimacy of the job, and she assured me that it was similar to ordinary cleaning jobs in Nigeria. After discussing it in detail, she gave me directions on how to travel to Libya, explaining that she had used the same method herself.
She sent me some money to buy essential items, instructing me to purchase garri and water as there might be no access to food or water along the way.
Regarding transportation, she assured me that a luxurious bus would take us to the country, ensuring that I had nothing to worry about.
She directed me to travel to a location in Kano from Enugu. I cannot recall the exact name of the place in Kano, but she instructed me to meet a man referred to as the “Connection man.” Though I didn’t know his real name, that’s how she addressed him. She mentioned that upon meeting him, he would guide me to where our journey would commence.
How familiar are you with your online friend?
We aren’t too close; in fact, I can’t remember his surname. When he introduced me to his sister, I thought he just wanted to help me. I thought it was legitimate.
So, did you inform anyone before leaving for Kano?
No, I didn’t.
Why?
My mum doesn’t care about me, and I felt it was best to inform them when I got there. I don’t know who my father is, and my mum refused to tell me anything about my dad. My mum left me at five years old to marry because she believed that as she gave birth to me, she wouldn’t find any man to marry her, so she married and ignored me. According to my mum’s sister, who is my aunt, my mum refused to breastfeed me when I was a baby. She said she didn’t want her breasts to sag. I have been living with my mum’s sister since I was a child. She sponsored my education up to JSS3. My aunt later got me a small apartment where I could stay and paid for me to learn tailoring because her husband didn’t like me, and he threatened her that he didn’t want me to live with them. That’s why she rented a house for me. She called my mum to contribute to my feeding, but my mum claimed she had no money. I was living in the house and learning the work. Feeding was very difficult for me, and that was why I decided to go to Libya after my friend told me about it.
So what happened when you got to Kano?
Before leaving Enugu, I didn’t tell anyone. I was so inexperienced that I didn’t even ask people anything about the country. My friend’s sister told me that the work I would be doing in Libya would pay me 100k daily, and I had never seen such money in my life before. I planned to work, even if it’s for two years, to save money for myself since I had no helper. When I left Enugu, it took me about a day to get to Kano State because the bus I entered had a fault. When I got to Kano, I met with the “Connection man,” and he told me to hold on for a week because I would be joining other people who were also going. I started getting worried. I called my friend’s sister and told her this wasn’t what she told me, and she said that I should not panic and that I would see the rest of the people that I would be going with. So they took me to another person. The connection man is Hausa. Other girls started joining me where I was, and they were young. As I met other girls, they explained to me where they were told they would be going. All of us looked at each other, and we couldn’t say much because there were other people with us. They brought some cars. I don’t know the names of the cars, but they brought about four cars and asked us to enter, stating that the journey had started. They rushed us to enter the cars and make things snappy. We were so many but they asked us to squeeze ourselves in the cars. We had to lap each other so that everyone could find a space to sit. It was as if we were sitting on each other. So we started the journey, but we faced many challenges. We couldn’t see the road. The Hausa guys were the ones driving us, and we got to a particular place where they said that if the cars should stop for everyone to come down, we should start running. According to what I heard, we were some miles close to the border where we could cross. The Hausa guys told us that we have to be smart and be ready to run so that the police won’t arrest us. They said, if the police arrest us, they will put us in prison. So we had to trek so that the police wouldn’t get us. We started trekking. We trekked for hours, and everyone became exhausted. If you didn’t walk fast, they would start beating you and shouting, “Aya.” They were speaking their language, and we didn’t understand all they were saying. We got to a particular place that looked like a ghetto, more like a Hausa settlement. I do not know the name of the place, and they pushed us into the building and locked us there. There was no longer Nigerian telephone network, but it still looked like a Hausa environment. They locked us in the ghetto where we couldn’t go out. They told us we would be there until the Arab white people would come and pick us up. We were there for weeks, with no one to call because there was no network. We had to feed on our garri and water with glucose. Sometimes they would bring food and ask us to buy for N100 if we didn’t have any, so we either fed on our garri or stayed hungry. After two weeks, the Arab people arrived. We still had to trek from bush to bush to avoid the police. We trekked for over seven hours. We got to a particular place where the Arab white men parked their Hilux trucks. There were about five cars. We entered the cars, and we were plenty.
How many were you?
We were about 100, so we also had to lap ourselves again. We started our journey, and the way they were driving us was rough. It was during the cold season, and the cold was too much. I heard the place is called the Sahara Desert. We got to a point where our water even finished. They would go somewhere to use kegs to fetch water for us. Some of the kegs have already been used to store petrol for their trucks. So, the water had petrol taste but they would ask us to drink it like that.
We stayed in that desert for almost a month, and they drove us to another place where we entered some other vehicles. At that point, they collected all our phones and told us that we are not allowed to use our phones, promising us that when we reach the end of the journey, they would release our phones to us.
So we continued the journey, and at one point, they instructed us to lie down in the Hilux, sleeping on top of each other and using our backpacks to cover ourselves. They asked us not to make any noise. There was no breathing space, and two boys died during the journey. I don’t even know where they kept their bodies.
They were just transferring us from one person to another. Eventually, the man they assigned me to asked me to call my madam, so I made the call. My madam came to pick me up, and that was how I got to Libya.
I started the journey to Libya on September 18, 2022, and arrived in Libya on November 15, 2022.
So I stayed for one week in her house, and she told me that the kind of job I would be doing is called “connection one”. I asked her to explain better because I didn’t understand, and she said that it was “prostitution” and that I would pay her N1.5m. I was shocked and told her it wasn’t what we had discussed. We had talked about a cleaning job where she initially said I would pay her one million. She insisted that the work I would do is prostitution and that I would now pay her N1.5 m.
She threatened me that if I misbehaved, she would make me go mad. She even forcefully cut hair from my private parts. She told me that no one would help me and that it was either I accepted to do what she asked me to do or she would sell me.
I was afraid but accepted the job. She took me to a prostitution house. I worked there for one month. I saved a little money and bought a phone without her knowledge. I could no longer stay in that place. The people there were forcing little girls to sleep with men. I found a way to escape. I chatted with someone on Facebook and narrated my ordeal. The guy told me that if I see opportunities to escape from there, I should let him know. So one day, he called me and told me that he would send someone to Libya to help me and that the person would act as if he wanted to pick me up for a job.
So that was how I left the prostitution house. I left in December last year (2023). I worked somewhere in the country, but they refused to pay me my salary. I was told they were traveling and they would pay me when they were back. That was how the people I worked for left with my money and refused to pay me. The work was so stressful and not easy. Imagine cleaning a three-story building, cleaning the bulbs, and the windows of a big house. You are not allowed to sit or rest. Sometimes they would even accuse you of stealing from them.
So how have you been coping?
I am currently staying with someone who has been accommodating me for some time. This person said there is no work for now. It is difficult for him to find work for me as policemen are going about arresting people. Everyone is just hiding their heads. It has been difficult for me. No money to eat, no work, no way to come back to Nigeria. I am so tired, I just feel like ending my life. I don’t know my fate. I hardly eat.
Have you contacted your mum or your aunt?
My mum became aware when I got here. I informed her immediately, and she only said, “No problem,” and that I should be careful. She doesn’t care about me because she is married.
What help do you need now?
I just want to come back to Nigeria. I am tired of being stranded here. A lot of things are happening here. People are living in fear. You might even go out and not return alive, and the police too might arrest us because we came here illegally. They will always ask for your passport and blood test, and the Arab people here can just attack you and sell you into prostitution. They treat us like slaves here. I need help to go home. I want to return to Nigeria.
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