The new slave trade-human trafficking in Libya is being
carried out by many nationalities, including Nigerians and Ghanaians, according
to a Cameroonian returnee, who was abducted in the country.
Foka Fotsi, who was trafficked twice, told Reuters that
those in charge of one of the places where he was held included Ghanaians and
Nigerians. Fotsi story corroborated another testimony by a Nigerian in the
southern state of Edo, who identified one Charles, a Nigerian as the
trafficking kingpin.
Unable to find work to support his family, Fotsi decided to leave Cameroon last year, but fell into the hands of a Libyan kidnap ring before reaching Europe.
Unable to find work to support his family, Fotsi decided to leave Cameroon last year, but fell into the hands of a Libyan kidnap ring before reaching Europe.
“There was torture like I’ve never seen. They hit you with
wooden bats, with iron bars,” he said, removing the hood of his sweatshirt and
showing the still raw red wounds on his skull.
“They hang you from the ceiling by (your) arms and legs and
then throw you down to the floor. They swing you and throw you against the
wall, over and over again, ten times.
“They are not human beings. They are the devil personified.”
Christelle Timdi, another Cameroonian recounted her
horrendous experience in the north African country. When uniformed men boarded
the overloaded rubber dingy carrying her and her boyfriend to a new life in
Europe, she thought the Italian coastguard had come to rescue them. But
the men took out guns and began to shoot.
“Many people fell in the sea,” the 32-year-old Cameroonian
said as she described seeing her boyfriend, Douglas, falling in the water and
disappearing into the darkness.
The gunmen took Timdi and her fellow passengers back to
Libya where they were locked up, raped, beaten and forced to make calls to
their families back home for ransom payments to secure their freedom.
Timdi, who flew back to Cameroon last week, told her story
as international outcry escalated over a video which appeared to show African
migrants being traded as slaves in Libya. Libya’s U.N.-backed government has
said it is investigating and has promised to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Timdi said she had not seen the footage broadcast by CNN, but had witnessed the
trade in humans while in Libya.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” she said, describing how she
had seen a Senegalese man buying an African migrant. Libya is the main jumping
off point for migrants trying to reach Europe by boat. Timdi said many
traffickers posed as marine guards, police officers and taxi drivers to ensnare
victims. There were around 130 other migrants on her boat when the gunmen
opened fire in the middle of the night, Timdi said.
After being taken back to Libya they were locked in an
abandoned factory building where men would grab and rape the girls and women –
and sometimes even the men.
“We tried to hide the younger girls among us,” Timdi said,
describing the terrifying moments when the guards would scour the room with
torches, searching for their next victims.
“I was heavily pregnant – that’s why I wasn’t raped. And
it’s all done in front of others – they say it’s so that you know what will
happen to you if you don’t pay up.” Timdi said the facilities used by
traffickers appeared to be well organised and guarded, adding that most people
inside wore fake police or military uniforms.
“The place was surrounded by army-style vehicles with guns
ready to fire, so we didn’t dare try and escape.” Timdi’s family paid 1 million
CFA francs ($1,800), frantically collected from relatives and friends, to free
her. But she said ransoms were no guarantee of safety.
The traffickers work with a network of taxi drivers who are
supposed to transfer released migrants to migrant camps – but who often
re-traffick them, Timdi said.
“If they send you a good taxi, you’ll arrive at your
destination, but if it’s a bad taxi the driver will sell you on to someone
else,” she said.
“There are people who have been resold twice, three times.
And when you call your family to tell them that you’ve been resold once again,
no one will believe you, they won’t send more money to free you.”
Timdi was released by her captors in October and gave birth
to a baby girl, Brittanie, in a Libyan hospital just days later.
Timdi and Fotsi were among 250 Cameroonians who were flown
home this week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as part of
a voluntary return scheme for migrants stranded in Libya.
The programme, funded by the European Union, provided
returnees with clothing and medical checks. The most vulnerable, including
pregnant women, also received around 400 euros ($475). IOM Cameroon head
Boubacar Saybou said it was launching a programme to help migrants set up
businesses, and will also provide start-up funding.
“We need to create opportunities for them here. That’s
what’s important,” he said. Fotsi said he hoped to follow up on the scheme. But
for now his most pressing problem was finding a place to sleep.
“I pray that God gives me work that I can do here,” he said.
“If we don’t get work you’ll find many of us walking the
streets again.”
Reuters
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