Shocking revelation: Raped Libya returnees pregnant

Some of the female victims, who were recently evacuated from Libya, are said to be pregnant after being raped by their captors while in detention in Libya, just as some Nigerians still in Libya are said to have spurned efforts to bring them back to Nigeria.

A member of the Edo States Task Force on Libya Returnees, Comrade Solomon Okoduwa, informed Sunday Tribune at the weekend that the victims were subjected to dehumanising experience by their captors. He disclosed that about  560 Nigerians are expected to be repatriated into the country from Libya this week.

According to him, the expected Libya returnees consist of two groups of about 280 people each.

He gave the expected date for the arrival of the Nigerians as Tuesday, December 5, 2017.

Edo State has the highest number of Nigerians, who are being repatriated from Libya, with indigenes of the state consisting about 70 per cent of the returnees.

He stated that about 780 Libya returnees, who were indigenes of Edo State, had been brought to the state upon their arrival at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.

He said that the state government was solely responsible for the rehabilitation and training of the Libya returnees, calling on local and international organisation to assist the  government in rehabilitating the Libya returnees.

He said: “Apart from taking care of the returnees from the moment they land in Lagos, Edo State government pays children returnees N10,000; adults get N20, 000, while pregnant women get N25,000  each within the first three months of their arrival.

“We also provide accommodation, medicare, training and other important needs while they are with us. “

Meanwhile, as outrage over the inhuman treatment being meted out by the Libyan militias to Nigerians and other African nationals desperate to travel to countries around Europe and America for greener pastures but got stranded  in the war-torn North African country, many Nigerians still trapped in the country were not willing to return.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the current evacuation of victims is based on the willingness of the victims to return.  According to information from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), “the 5,548 who have returned so far were those who voluntarily expressed willingness to return back to Nigeria through funding from the European Union.”

Although many Nigerians still trapped it was said were not willing to take advantage of the Europe-funded evacuation,  some of the Nigerian victims, according to NEMA, are expected back in the country from next week Tuesday.

Thousands of other Nigerians as well as nationals of other African countries, it was confirmed,  are still languishing in different camps controlled by the deadly Libyan militias who regularly inflict torture on them at the slightest provocation and later sold them into slavery.

Before being sold,  The New York Times in its November 30 edition confirmed that the traffickers also subjected the victims and their families to rounds of extortion.

“Both the traffickers and the militiamen running the detention centres may sell migrants into forced labour or sexual exploitation, and the traffickers often bribe detention centres to regain the captured migrants so that they can extort more money from friends and family in their country of origin,” the newspaper reported.

Between January and last November, 2017, a total of 5,548 Nigerians have been flown back to Nigeria from Libya Libya with the aid of International Organization for Migration (IOM) from the European Union.

Out of the number, 1,950 were brought back just last month, November from which 150 of them returned through the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport on November 30, 2017 after 10.00pm.

Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) received the total number otherwise known as Nigerian Assisted Voluntary Returnees (AVR) from This figure according to NEMA included a new arrival of 150 Thursday night aboard a chartered flight marked BURAQ Boeing 737-800 with registration number 6A-DMG.

Of the 150 who arrived on Thursday, 133 were male adults, two male children, one male infant, 13 female adults and one female infant.

The returnees were received on behalf of the federal government through the Zonal Coordinator of NEMA in the South- West, Alhaji Suleiman Yakubu, representing the Director General, Mr Mustapha Maihajjia.

While many unlucky Nigerians had died at the hands of their captors who seize the opportunity of the inability of the Nigerians to secure their release, thousands had died in the Mediterranean Sea without reaching Europe.

The inhuman treatment the Nigerians and other African national are subjected to by the Libyans recently sparked deeper outrage following the documentary aired by the American CNN revealing how many of the stranded Nigerians were sold into slavery.