Four Nigerian women trafficked to Libya have cried out for help, recounting harrowing experiences of exploitation, abuse, and inhumane treatment they are facing in the North African country.
Speaking with the media on the phone, the women, who are; 20-year-old Adewumi Omowumi Boluwatife, 31-year-old Damilola Ojumirayo, 30-year-old Akinsanya Adenike, and 27-year-old Sobayo Oluwanifemi, all from the Southwest region of Nigeria, tearfully appealed to the Nigerian government to intervene and bring them home.
The victims said they were deceived by human traffickers who promised them employment opportunities abroad but ended up selling them into forced labour and sexual exploitation.
According to their testimonies, their current condition is more like people in captivity as their traffickers abandoned them to abusive Libyans who have abused and exploited them sexually severally, impregnating one of them, Boluwatife.
“I came to Libya in July 2022 through my sister’s friend. I came with my sister but what they told us is different from what we met here,” Boluwatife told SaharaReporters amid tears.
“It is not easy at all but I still managed to pay my sponsor, Yetunde Olumide from Ogun State,” she added.
According to her, “I paid her the sum of N4.5million and after paying her, she stopped caring about me.
“I became homeless and a Nigerian guy, Simon Matthew, who later helped me with accommodation took advantage of me and got me pregnant. Now I’m stuck here, I’m not feeding well, no medication.
“The person I’m squatting with said I should find a way out of her place. I’m just confused and tired. Please, I need all the help I can get to get out of this country. I don’t want to die please,” she pleaded.
Also narrating her ordeal, Adenike said fell sick and when she asked her employer’s wife to pay her so she could go to hospital for treatment, “the Arab woman and her children started beating me. Since then I have not been feeling well. I had to go and start squatting with my sister, and we are now, they have asked us to leave, and I don’t know where to go, so it is better for me to go back to Nigeria.”
According to her, “I left Nigeria by road on March 11, 2024. My ex-husband’s friend made me leave Nigeria.
“I was told that I would do house help work. When I got here, I was working as house help for an Arab man, Zawia.”
Adenike said that after she completed paying her trafficker, who she referred to as her sponsor, the sum of N1.4million, the female trafficker she identified as Ojumirayo Obaloluwa, stopped her (Adenike) from having access to her (Obaloluwa).
“She said I should go and find my own place. As I speak now, I’m not feeling fine at all. Even when I went to the hospital, they did not attend to me. To eat, my people used to send me money from Nigeria. I want to go back to Nigeria.”
For Damilola Ojumirayo from Bariga in Lagos State, she was taken to Libya on July 7, 2022, through a connection made for her by her friend.
Her trafficker who she simply identified as Adeola from Osun state collected the sum of N2.4million from her with a promise of a good job in Libya.
“After paying my sponsor, I tried working for my own money but along the line I was sold to prostitution house,” she said.
“I was beaten mercilessly but thank God my parents and relatives stood for me to bring me out of that place by paying them.
“After coming out from there, the person that helped me and my sister took advantage of her, now she is pregnant,” she added, referring to Boluwatife.
For Oluwanifemi, her ex-boyfriend, Oyenekan Ola’s sister, Abdulrasaq Aishat, from Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, trafficked her to Libya on February 2, 2023, to do a househelp job.
Based on their agreement, Oluwanifemi, who also hails from Abeokuta, told SaharaReporters, “I worked and managed to pay her the sum of N3 million but it wasn’t easy. I used one year and 3 months to pay my sponsor.
“When I finished paying my sponsor, she sent me out of her house, so it was very hard and difficult for me and I was very sick.
“I started squatting here (same place with the other three) but even to eat is very hard and now, the person we are squatting with wants to send us out.
“Please we need help. We are currently in Zawiya.”
Human trafficking remains a serious issue in West Africa, where victims are often lured with false promises of employment and transported across borders into exploitative conditions.
Particularly, Libya has long been a hub for human trafficking, with thousands of African migrants, especially women, trapped in slavery-like conditions while attempting to cross into Europe.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that hundreds of Nigerian women are currently stranded in Libya’s detention centres or in the hands of traffickers.
Organisations advocating against human trafficking have repeatedly called for stricter policies and better enforcement to combat this growing crisis.
In recent years, the Nigerian government has partnered with international bodies to facilitate the repatriation of victims.
However, many still remain in captivity due to the chaotic security situation in Libya and the clandestine nature of trafficking networks.
The four women pleaded not only for themselves but also for other Nigerian victims who, they said, are suffering silently in similar conditions across Libya.
“We are not the only ones. Many Nigerian girls are here, beaten, raped, and forgotten. We are pleading with the Nigerian government not to forget us,” they said.
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