The Muhammadu Buhari administration has continued to react to the reports on the slave trading in Libya involving some Nigerians and most of it is victim blaming.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Affairs, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa on Thursday, November 30, 2017 said Nigerians have earlier been warned about going to the country due to the dangers involved.
Dabiri-Erewa on Channels Television’s Programme, Politics Today said the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the office of Foreign Affairs warned Nigerians not to go to Libya due to the situation in the country.
“NEMA, my office, IOM told Nigerians that avoid Libya, it is deadly, it is dangerous, don’t go there. Also on the news, you have cases of Nigerians being brought back from Libya on a regular basis. So Nigeria has been bringing back its citizens from Libya,” she said.
Speaking on the dangers some Nigerians expose themselves to in traveling to Libya, she said Nigerians subject themselves to horrendous experience just to leave the shores of the country.
“You can imagine the dangerous journey. Walking about 3,000 kilometers that’s flying for about three hours if you are going to Europe. This might be attributed to poverty. Yes, the government must do the needful by creating enabling environment and jobs but it goes beyond that. What do you say of a mother who sells her land and pays off $4,000 for her daughter to go to Europe?”
The SSA to the president also stressed the importance of family values saying traffickers are exploiting victims who are desperate to travel abroad, to get richer.
“We should look at the family value and the systems. For every person who goes on that journey, a trafficker is being empowered, a trafficker is getting richer,” she said.
She promised that the Buhari government is working to ensure more youths are gainfully engaged to avoid dangerous expeditions in search of greener pastures.
President Muhammadu Buhari had promised to bring home those stranded in the North African country and ensure that Nigerians are no longer trapped in foreign lands in some of the most horrendous illegal journeys. The president also vowed to stop illegal migration through the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea by providing basic social amenities such as education, healthcare, and food security at home.
