By Louis Iba

About 171 illegal Nigerian immigrants to Libya arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, yesterday, aboard a chartered Buraq Air aircraft.              

The returnees comprised 95 males and 76 females, among them 12 children and three infants.

Deputy Director for Search and Rescue for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Dr Bamdele Onimode, who briefed newsmen, said  the returnees had been trapped in detention camps in Libya, and had, voluntarily, agreed to return to Nigeria.

Onimode said between December 15, 2016, and March 5, 2017, about 643 Nigerians, who had entered Libya illegally, had been brought back, successfully and alive through collaborative efforts between the Nigerian government and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

“Although painful, we are receiving this batch of 171 Nigerians from Libya on behalf of the Federal Government, and we are glad they all came back alive,” he said.

“Some of the states these girls come from are getting interested in what we are doing and are also partnering us to ensure they learn good trade that can make them useful. When you speak to them you will discover most of them were deceived into believing that they would have a much better future in Libya or in Europe, but it turned out not to be so,” he added.  

Three of the returnees, who shared their experiences with Daily Sun said they were lucky to have returned alive, having suffered terrible abuses and starvation in Libya.          

Godson Eboigbe from Edo State, one of the returnees said he left Nigeria  about one year and three months ago by road to work in Libya at a construction site.

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“I was earning good money about N55,000 monthly  working on contraction sites as a labourer. But one day, the Police burst into the house where I was living with other Nigerians and arrested us. They said we were illegal immigrants. They beat us and took us to a detention centre where we were not given food and water for days. Later, the IOM people came to that centre and I said I want to return to Nigeria.

“The only painful thing is I came back empty. I spent over N700,000 to travel, and all I laboured for, they didn’t allow me to carry along when they took me to the detention centre. I lost about N300,000 which was in the house I lived when they arrested me,” he added.

Another returnee, who simply gave her name as Mercy from Edo State, said she was lured by a friend into going to Libya with the promise to eventually cross over to Europe.

“My girlfriend’s brother took me there and said he would assist me cross over to Europe; my target was Paris. I had to first work as a house help to an Arab women, but I was caught one day when I went to buy some things and taken to the detention centre. Life in the detention centre was like hell. We were starving; no good food, no water, no good sleep and all sorts of harassment at night.

“I spent five months in Libya and I was earning about N70,000 every month, but I feel bad that all the money I made the person who took me there came at the end of every month to collect them since they took me there on credit. But I thank God I am back alive, Nigeria is my country and I know I will success one day,” she said.                                 

Also, Ms. Gift John from Delta State said she had spent over three years in Libya and was working as a sales girl in a retail shop where she earned the equivalent of N600,000 yearly.

“I was looking for job in Nigeria for years and I didn’t find any; that’s why I took the risk to go to Libya,” she said.   “Some of my friends died and some are in prison serving terms for what they don’t know because the police would just come and pick everybody who is black and brand us prostitutes. I watched one day when they burnt some Nigerians alive because they said they were prostitutes. I’m happy to be back in my country, but if I meet President Buhari, I will tell him to create jobs for girls in the country. Look at all of us brought back today, the majority are women,” she added.

According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, following complaints about the maltreatment of Nigerians residing illegally by Libyian security officials, a presidential order was issued that all Nigerians held up in  detention centres in that country must be brought back safely.  The first batch of returnees who were brought back from Libya early February this year was made up of 161 persons, 101 males and 60 females. The second batch comprised 171 persons, among them 112 females and 59 males.