Deported Nigerian Lady Recounts Bitter Experience - We Drank Water from a Well with a Corpse Inside

Tracy Stephen demonstrates how more than 48 migrants were squeezed “like sardines” into a vehicle meant for 8 on their 3-day journey from the Nigeria-Niger border through the Sahara Desert to Sakha in Libya. (PRNewsFoto/Emmanuel TV)

 

Speaking during a live broadcast on Prophet T.B Joshua's Emmanuel TV, a 23-year-old Tracy Stephen from Edo State, who is one of the latest group of 52 deported Europe-bound migrants, has recounted her journeys via the Sahara Desert, Libya and the perilous Mediterranean Sea.

 

The lady who is among the lucky ones who remained alive to tell their stories as over 3,600 Europe-bound migrants have died this year alone, recollected horrific details of torture, abuse and starvation which included drinking water from a well with a corpse inside, and nearly suffocating while hiding in a truck covered with watermelons as camouflage, and witnessing teenage girls r*ped at gunpoint by their traffickers. 

 

Lucky to be alive, her attempt to reach Italy was almost fatal when the over-filled rubber dinghy she had boarded ran out of fuel. “There were no life-jackets and none of us could swim,” she said, adding that children and babies were among the 140 crammed on-board. 

 

According to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), finally rescued by the Libyan Coast Guard, she was imprisoned for three months before being repatriated to Nigeria through the intervention of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), who subsequently provided a vehicle to bring the deportees to The SCOAN in recognition of the church’s humanitarian efforts. 

 

Her narrative was one of many disturbing stories recounted, including a lady whose two children had to drink her urine to survive. While the congregants and viewers of Emmanuel TV were shocked to hear such horrific accounts, T.B. Joshua warned those who were on the verge of making similar journeys. 

 

“It is where God wants you to make it that you will make it, not where you want to make it or where you admire,”he counselled. 

 

In support of the downtrodden deportees, T.B. Joshua presented gifts amounting to N10,000,000 (US$33,000), each of the group receiving N150,000 (US$500) alongside two bags of rice to “start their lives afresh.”