A 25-year-old Nigerian woman has narrated her story of tears, suffering, rape and an unwanted pregnancy as she made her way from Benin, the Edo State capital, to Italy through the torrid route of Libya.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, she said she took the difficult decision of japaing to Europe through Libya after she lost her parents in four years, leaving her to cater to five siblings.
Naomi Iwelu said she could not continue her education and dropped out in secondary school. Pushed to the wall and facing an uncertain future, she decided to leave Benin in 2018.
She said her friend living in Libya at the time had convinced her to take the plunge after they reconnected on Facebook.
Her first challenge was raising the N3.87 million (€4,000) required for the journey but after lying to her boyfriend that she needed some money to help her sister, she embarked on the life-changing journey.
She said her journey started with a group her friend had linked her with, saying they were ‘a lot’ trying to get into Tripoli, Libya’s capital.
After two weeks in the desert, Iwelu arrived in Tripoli and worked as a cleaner in a local’s house for six months.
She explained that one day after returning to the man’s house, she found two men with knives asking for money.
Unable to provide them with cash, they asked her to take off her clothes before taking turns to rape her. She said despite her traumatic experience, she continued working at the man’s house to raise money for her final journey to Italy.
She narrated the risky experience on a rubber dinghy on their way to Italy, saying they were many that made the attempt to enter the European country.
After reaching Lampedusa, the Italian doctors who examined her told her she was pregnant.
“I didn’t know I was pregnant. It was so painful for me,” she told Al Jazeera
“I wanted to study, and for that, I had to get [an] abortion. I didn’t want the baby.”
Naomi was eventually able to secure an abortion, and now, having graduated from an Italian school, she works in a restaurant a few steps away from Via Etnea, Catania’s central street, Sicily.
