Libya survivor and returnee, Oyiza, has recounted her ordeals while in Libya to seek for a better life. The now Football journalist has helped many Nigerians in captivity in Libya to gain freedom and return home. She informed her followers on her official Facebook page that she has officially registered LUNA FOUNDATION, which stands to fight against human tracking.
“On the 30th of March 2015, I left the shores of nigeria to embark on a life-changing trip to Libya.
I had just one goal to achieve on that trip, work for 5 years and come back home, achieve the highest form of my academic pursuit and live happily ever after.”
“The journey from Kano, Nigeria to Tripoli, Libya lasted about 34 days on the road. From Kano to Zindel to Agadez, to Gatron to Sabha to Abu-ghefi to Braq to tripoli not noting some other villages I didn’t take cognisance of.
Each town had its own distinct feature, each town had its own everlasting memory, from the town that reeked with sexual abuse, to the town that brought out our survival instinct to the town that was littered with bones, to the town that was filled with tears of other migrants, and you can’t intervene, there’s something dark about each town.”
“I got to Libya, 1st week of May 2015. The first house I worked was hell, I would wake up as early as 6am and sleep around 12am.
The Arabs pride themselves with deep cleaning. From scrubbing the floor with harmful chemicals, to collecting dusts, doing laundry and thorough ironing, to keeping the kitchen sparkling clean to caring the kids, it was quite a handful for me.
Gradually, my strong body started failing, my back and hands ached alot. I couldn’t deep my hands in water and after lots of back and forth, I changed work.”
“The second family had less work load and more sexual harassment. Constant deliberately brushing past my breast and smacking of ass.
Attempts to change the work led to my first prison experience: My hell on earth. I still wail anytime I see my bruises.
The bruises I sustained from been beaten when I asked for drugs from the children, the forceful blood donation, I still have migraines as a result of the multiple blows I was dealt with on my head.
Life didn’t get better after that, the next phase after my freedom wasn’t favorable as well. I decided to pick up my life and start again.
Little did I know I would be kidnapped while trying to get my friends back. The 2 days and night I spent with kidnappers was hell.
I was doused with petrol, stabbed, beaten, sexually assaulted and was almost sold. The determination to rather die than be sold into sex slavery led to my escape.
My escape was nothing short of a miracle. I just defeated death again. From that point, I made a decision to come back home.”
“The trauma to such experience, unfortunately, might be everlasting.
The days of bad dreams, the days of regret, the days angers, the days of guilts, the days of undefined emotions, I will have to leave with them.
But for now, I have been using my story to educate and create and awareness on the dangers of human trafficking and irregular migration.
I have also used my experience to build a solid team of 12 survivors, and we are determined to use our network to intervene for those in prisons and those languishing in the hands of traffickers.
So far, our success rate is small:
About 21 missing relatives have been located in various prisons across Libya, with over 100 still unaccounted for.
We have directly and indirectly rescued over 200 girls from various traffickers while working with the Libyan authorities.
We have unaccompanied minors in our camp, and recently, we have established a work zone in Burkina Faso.
It was never my dream to delve into this, I have ran away from these tens of times , but after a lot of consideration, I have decided to turn my pain into purpose.
On that note, I am happy to inform you that LUNA FOUNDATION is officially registered.
To me, this is the beginning of my campaign against human trafficking.
I am grateful to God for holding my hands through the fire and as long as I live, no other person will get burnt.”
