Victim of human trafficking in the restrictive migration and border regime: From Nigeria to Libya

_{Crédits Image : UN Women/Dzilam Mendez - À Mexico, une installation artistique composée de signes de Vénus, représentant des femmes, souligne l’ampleur du fémicide, ou violence mortelle contre les femmes. (Mars 2018)}

It all started when Blessing decided to leave home at the age of 14 because of family conflicts. Falling into the wrong hands Blessing was trafficked from Nigeria to Libya with the promise of taking her to Europe for a better life. Getting to Libya, Blessing was sold as a sex slave. There she was forced to do horrific things which she could never imagine. She was forced to sleep with men without protection, forced to take their home-made cooked alcohol, forced to smoke and even forced to take drugs. She had to withstand all the violence just to meet up with the perpetrators’ demands and being treated as a sex slave.

Failing to do any what her masters required lead her being sold to another sex slave master. Blessing was sold uncountable times till she gives in to pressure. The years were counting while Blessing started consuming drugs, taking excess alcohol in Libya because of the pressure she was subjected to.

During her stay with those several sex slave masters, Blessing went through so many horrific experiences. Generally spoken, those sex slave masters only care about the money but not the person who they force to do awful things. They are only interested in getting the money after forcing these girls to sleep with men without protection. They are still the ones who will run a pregnancy check on those women or girls to know, if they are pregnant or not. Eventually when girls or women are pregnant, those human traffickers take you to their Nigerian quack home doctor to conduct an abortion. After the abortion they force the women or girls to pay the fees for the abortion. So, women and girls find themselves having depts.

Decision to turn back home but stocked in Agadez

Blessing continued like that in Libya for 10 years until she finally had the opportunity to come back to Niger – with the hope of returning back to Nigeria. But she had to stop in Agadez to continue the sex business since at this point, she couldn't go further without any money.

Sex workers in Agadez are treated horribly bad for no reason. It is not clear to us why they despise the sex workers. But who are we go judge them? The sex workers here go through so many unimaginable things: like being raped, being robbed, experiencing harassment and bully. Most times they are even scared to go to the police because they are foreigners. Police doesn’t mean protection to those women and girls. In general, there is no protection or safe space for (migrant) sex workers in Agadez at all. Moreover, they experience violence and rejection by different people such as the locals, the officials or other migrants. Those robbers or violent inhabitants take the phones from the women. In broad day light those perpetrators steal their valuables and even go as far as raping them.

The feminicide on Blessing

On the 27th of February 2024 at 3 to 4am, a group of boys jumped in to the house where Blessing was staying. She was living and working there with other Nigerian women. Even though there was a security guard present, he was beaten up by this group of boys. Moreover, they stole his phone. Meanwhile they raped Blessing, beat her and committed further violent acts against her. She ended up with so much punches of her face, her cheeks and jaw. They did horrible things which lead to a lot of complications and internal bleedings. The next day she started complaining of mouth pain. But she had no money to go to the hospital. Before other colleges could contribute money and rushed her to the hospital, she died on their way to the hospital.

At the end, the police were involved. They arrested the people that were with Blessing at the hospital then release them after two days, since they haven’t committed any crime.

Up today Blessing has not been buried yet. But we hope that she will rest in peace, Blessing!

Stop feminicide, stop criminalising migration, Stop violating sex workers!

This story leads to a lot of emotions! We feel angry, sad and helpless. Furthermore, we stay in solidarity with Blessing and her friends, colleagues and family.

These violent structures cannot be understood without criticising patriarchy, capitalism and violent border regimes. We will continue to fight against all these forms of oppression!