Libya Slave Trade: ‘I was beaten everyday and shitting blood’ – Nigerian Victim recounts

Nigerian Victim recounts his experience in Libya.

A deported Nigerian victim of the ongoing slave trade in Libya, Victory Imasuen narrated his ordeal in Prophet T.B Joshua’s church on Sunday.

The young barber, an indigene of Edo State, said that his father died when he was just 11 and that he struggled to sponsor himself through school along with his five siblings.

Recounting how he became a victim of slave trade, Imasuen said, “When I was cutting the hair of one of my customer’s, he advised me to go to Europe where he promised I could earn a lot of money. I asked the man how much it would cost me. He said N350,000 but I said I only had N140,000 with me.”

According to him, the man promised to assist him, without knowing he was about to sell himself into slavery.

He explained that travelling by road through Niger was a terrible one, recounting how a vehicle in his convoy killed 30 people instantly in a fatal accident in the Sahara Desert.

“Upon arriving in Libya, the driver said he had not been paid his money and we were sold into the slave trade in Sabha. Ten other Nigerians were sold and then we were locked up in one small room. More than 200 slaves were kept inside the cell.

“They started beating me to call my mother to send money. That was when my mother learned I was not in Nigeria – because I did not tell her before I left,” he narrated.

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Imasuen said they demanded for N200,000 ransom, “for months, I did not hear from her. They kept on beating me everyday and I fell sick. If I went to the toilet, I was shitting blood.”

He said the males were beaten and he was beaten three times daily for eight months while the ladies were sold into slavery, “they would send them out to do prostitution before selling them to another person; I know of a girl there who was sold three times.”

He said further, “most of the enslaved females fell pregnant without even knowing the father of the child.”

After many months of living in agony, Imasuen’s picture of deteriorated state surfaced in his village and they manage to raise the money to gain his freedom in March 2017. After gaining his freedom, he attempted to travel to Tripoli, hoping to join the thousands of illegal migrants who would travel through the sea to reach Italy by boat.

“I didn’t even get to Tripoli before I was caught and taken to prison. I met more than 10,000 Nigerians there. We only eat once a day there – one piece of bread. I would drink salt water,” he revealed.

‎In the prison, Imasuen devised a plan to reach deportation camp, and so, he slipped a note into the female section of the prison, pleading that any of the ladies who was being taken for deportation claim he was their husband.

Fortunately, the plan clicked and he was taken to Tripoli’s main deportation camp to be repatriated to Nigeria.

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He revealed that the granted an interview to CNN in the camp hoping to get help but it was an effort in futility.

According to him, the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, rid his suffering and he was deported finally back to Nigeria

“Upon getting to Nigeria, I decided to come to T.B. Joshua because even before I left, I heard of the help he renders to others. I need prayer,” he said.

NaijaNews learnt that Osazee Aghimie, another deportee, shared his horrible experience too. He also recounted how over 100 migrants died in the boat he was in after it capsized en route to Italy. He narrowly survived only to be thrown into prison and eventually deported.

It was learnt that T.B. Joshua gave the two men each N200,000.

According to Premium Times , the cleric support to the duo is not an isolated instance. This week alone, the cleric gave over N4.4 million to Nigerians returning from Libya, and well over N100 million ($277,000) has been provided to them by The SCOAN since 2016.