‘Don’t struggle if you’re raped’, smuggled migrants told
In a lurid pink hotel room in Edo State, southern Nigeria, a trafficker is arranging to smuggle us across the continent to Libya -- and ultimately Europe.
Fluorescent lights flicker intermittently inside the hotel, which doubles as a brothel and serves as the headquarters of tonight's operation.
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We are posing as would-be migrants attempting to reach Italy with the help of our "pusherman" -- one of an army of brokers who work alongside smugglers on the Nigerian end of the migrant route from Africa to Europe.
Edo State is Nigeria's trafficking hub and one of Africa's largest departure points. Each year, tens of thousands of migrants are illegally smuggled from here. They're refugees fleeing conflict or economic migrants in search of better opportunities in Europe, most having sold everything they own to finance the journey.
But as CNN revealed in an exclusive report last year, they often never get beyond Libya.
When they arrive, they're told by smugglers they will need to pay thousands of dollars more to continue their journey across the Mediterranean.
When the migrants fail to pay, they are held in grim living conditions, deprived of food, abused by their captors, and sold as laborers in slave auctions.
Footage obtained of a slave auction in Libya -- in which young men were sold by smugglers for as little as $400 each -- caused international outrage.
The 'VIP' package
Three months later we wanted to see whether that outrage had translated into action. CNN producer Leposo and I went undercover as two wealthy women paying for the "VIP" travel package from Nigeria to Europe, which includes a smuggler who will meet us in the northern city of Kano and escort us across the border into Libya.
We gave scant detail about our situation, saying only that we hoped to reach Italy and then travel from there to London. The smugglers were mostly interested in our money, and asked few questions.
In reality, our plan was to secure a deal, set off from Auchi in the north of Edo State, and then quit the journey as soon as we were safely out of the sight of smugglers.
Setting up the deal was incredibly easy. Hassan, another CNN producer, worked undercover to negotiate a deal with the pusherman in Ekpoma, also in Edo State.
Hassan negotiated 500,000 Nigerian naira for each of us, roughly $1,400.
The money was due on our arrival in Libya. Hassan was the guarantor of our journey and would be held accountable if we became frightened and backed out of the deal.
He was told by the pusherman that the price to smuggle women is higher than for, say, small boys, because women's journeys are "even more difficult -- they are molested there (in Libya)."
As part of our "VIP" travel package, we were offered condoms for the journey. The pusherman later expressed dismay that I hadn't packed any myself.
"We give you contraception," he told me. "You need men in Libya to be kind to you. They will have things you want. Do you understand?"
When I said "yes," he laughed.
"Of course, you understand," he continued. "You don't get something for nothing in this life. You're lucky, the men sometimes wait six months before they're put on the boat to Europe."
"Women though -- if they're like you -- sometimes you can be put on a boat the very next day."
He has a warning for me: "Listen, don't struggle if you're raped."
Sexual abuse on the migrant route
Women and children routinely face sexual violence, abuse and detention along the Central Mediterranean migration route from North Africa to Italy, according to a 2017 UNICEF report.
"Nearly half the women and children interviewed had experienced sexual abuse during migration -- often multiple times and in multiple locations," said the report, which compiled testimony from 122 migrants.
Read full article at CNN.com from where this article was culled.
