A Nigerian migrant identified as Evans William, has revealed how he sold everything to make the trip to Europe.
In a chat with BBC’s Colin Freeman, William said he sold his bed, fridge, TV, spare clothes and mobile phone. After borrowing yet more cash, he finally had enough to pay a smuggling gang to take him from Nigeria across the Sahara to Libya.
In all, it cost him $1,000, but he wasn’t worried. Once in Europe, he figured, he could quickly earn enough to pay off his creditors, and eventually return home to start a business of his own.
It didn’t quite work out like that. After six miserable months in Libya, where the gang forced him to work for nothing, he finally boarded a rickety boat to cross the Mediterranean.
It got stopped by the Libyan coastguard, who threw him and 140 other passengers into a detention centre. By then he’d had enough. He has now returned home to Benin, Edo State, among hundreds of migrants staying in a government-requisitioned hotel.
I still don’t want to stay in Nigeria – Evans
He said ;
They’d been flown back by the International Organization for Migration, a UN body that helps illegal migrants who want to return home. “I still don’t want to stay in Nigeria,” “Although next time, I’ll try to go to Europe by legal means,”.
