Nigerian Victims of Sex Trafficking Share Their Tales of Horror to Caution Others
Arab-American journalist who is a senior international correspondent for CNN, Arwa Damon sat with two victims of sex trafficking in Nigeria, to hear their accounts of how they were lured abroad, and the horrors they suffered.
Sharing her experience, one of the victims narrated being tricked by a man she met in a church in Edo State, who said he was an assistant pastor.
According to her, the man had a vision from God that she traveled abroad and he said his sister could help her get a job at a hair salon.
READ ALSO: Nigerian Girls Forced and Enslaved Into Prostitution In Spain Rescued By Police
The victim said he took, “my pants, my bra, the hair from my head, the armpit and my private parts,” to a medicine man for juju.
Owing her trafficker $45,000 for covering her flight to Europe, the victim said the juju was to ensure she’d pay back.
Talking about a particularly awful experience, she said:
”There were five of them. They were brutal, they beat me up, they brought out a knife and tried to stab me. They might even kill you if you try to defend yourself. That’s the reason why it is very horrible.
And in that process most Nigerian girls lose their life, because not every girl can withstand the pressure of 10 men.
The men eventually pushed her out of a second-story window for not submitting.
READ ALSO: ‘I only tried to help the girls.’ Pastor Nabbed For Abusing 13 Underage Girls Spills
Another victim, Ede‘s story is quite different. She was sold into sexual slavery in Libya. Ede said of the man who bought her;
“He used to hurt me, apart from work. That is how they do there. When you finish paying your money [to your captor], if you are staying with a wicked somebody, they will sell you to another people so you start all over again.”
“Especially they hate us, we Nigerians… they don’t even want to hear anything concerning Nigerians,” she continued.
“They treated us like a slave, as if we are nothing. So we went through a lot there.”
Emmanuel was unable to pay a ransom to her kidnappers, so Stevens stepped in to pay the money and bought her freedom.
“They kidnapped me in a place called Sabha, that’s when I met my husband. He bailed me out, it was last year and we fell in love,” Emmanuel said.“I got pregnant in March this year and I gave birth to my baby in August. I gave birth to my baby in prison, with tears. Even though I was pregnant, they were still beating and maltreating me. But I give God the praise that I’m still alive today and I have my baby and my husband now.”
Their story is a rare silver lining amid the tales of horror recounted by newly-returned Nigerian migrants from Libya.
“I was scared but I made up my mind. I prayed to God that he would help me cross over the river. Many people die, but many survive,” she said.
“I didn’t know I was pregnant before I went to Libya. I found out at five months. I was forced to give birth in the back of a condemned vehicle. No hospital. Nothing. It was God that helped me.
I was all alone. I had nothing, nothing,” she said, recalling the birth of her child.”I spent a year and four months in Libya. All my time there was horror and terrible. I had a lot of beatings,” she recounted, pausing at times to sigh deeply before regaining her composure.
“People are dying every day, no food, no water. I was in prison for 10 months with my baby. It was horror. We just ate two slice of bread in the morning with some chai (local tea).It’s hard for the babies to get clothes or food. They were not kind to the babies at all. The worst thing that I saw was a pregnant woman who was beaten and raped.” she said.
“In my life, I would never go to Libya. I advise Nigerians not to travel to Libya,” she added.
Photo Credit: CNN
This is an old thing, anyone living the shores of this country without a genuine reason already knows what she’s going there to do.
Hmmmmmmn and yet some people will still be planning to embark on this dangerous trip.
hmmmn.