Yemisi Izuora
The Ag. Coordinator, Lagos Territorial Office, of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye has received a total of 161 Nigerians who arrived from Libya.
The returnees were brought back courtesy of European Union and IOM aboard AL Buraq air with flight number UZ189 and registration number 5A-DMA.
The returnees included 48 female adults, 4 female children, 5 female infants as well as 102 male adults, 1 male child and 1 infant male. The flight arrived Nigeria at about 2115hours on Thursday night.
This batch brought the total numbers of Voluntary Returnees from Libya to 14,045 alone which is made up of 8,200 males and 5,845 females
Other Agencies that joined NEMA in receiving the Returnees are NAPTIP, Nigeria Immigration Service, Police, FAAN, National Commission for Refugees and migration
Narrating her ordeal, Mercy Olatinde (not real names) from Akure, Ondo State, said she was 19 when she left Nigeria. She spent 1 year and 3 months before she decided to return to Nigeria.
She explained that she left Nigeria due to pressure on her when her mum had mental health problems and the father of her child abandoned them.
I was left with the tasks of fending for my siblings, mum and my daughter.
My mum relations and friends abandoned us. I was a tailoring apprentice after my hubby left us. My mum was thrown out of the house we were living because we could not afford paying the rent. Feeding became serious problems. My siblings could not continue schooling, they dropped out of school. No one was there for us. I had no alternative to seek more opportunities outside when I was told that I could secure good jobs.
But it was unfortunate that the so called good job was meant to destroy our future. Most of our ladies are located in Connection job while handful in Arab work.
Arab work is like house maid which goes with unpleasant experience from torture to overworking into very late hours and waking up very early.
Connection job is something that ladies exposed to that will not like to talk about.
The worst of it all is that all efforts to raise money became fruitless as militants or police can bust into our houses, rob us of our belongings and go away with everything we had worked for over there.
Trying to send something back through a Nigeria, you have to pay the amount you wish to send, a Nigerian will collect cash and ask his relative in Nigeria to send half of the amount to the person that the money is meant for.
I will never encourage anyone to embark on this type of perilous journey as it is just waste of one’s life for the periods spent on this type of journey though it is an experience but very bad one.
I need assistance to start off my life, my mum is better off health wise and she is hawking pure water now. I learn IOM and other organizations are helping people like us, I want to complete my fashion designing by apprenticeship but need to source for means of feeding while I am under apprenticeship.
