A Nigerian migrant who was rescued from an EU-bound rubber boat in the Mediterranean Sea last year has described the ordeal he went through in Libya.
22-year-old 'Otins' is one of the Nigerian migrants, who pass through Libya to what they hope is a better life in Europe. Speaking to MOAS last week, he claims that he had to leave Nigeria because of the crisis in the Niger Delta.
"I had to leave Nigeria because of the Niger Delta Crisis. This militia group came into our village and forced me and others to join them. One dark night I managed to escape the camp and run away. It took me five weeks but I finally managed to make it to Libya. It wasn’t the safe place I was expecting. I got kidnapped by a militia, they beat me and stabbed me with a knife several times. Black people are not humans in their eyes. I escaped again and managed to get in touch with a smuggler who put me on a rubber boat bound for Europe. The crossing was intense. The sun was so hot at sea that I passed out. You want to know my biggest dream? I have no dream anymore, because my only dream came true. I survived. I didn’t die in Nigeria, I didn’t die in Libya, I didn’t die in the sea. Now to find a new dream."
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