Libya is a one of the greener destination for most migrants that seek to better their lives but Nigerian returnees say the country holds no sweet memories for them.
A returnee, Esosa, said she is glad to returned home after all the troubles she had gone through. Esosa tried to enter Europe via Libya, but her experience was not a palatable one.
‘I am glad to return home to start a new life after all the troubles I went through in Libya, in my search for greener pastures,” the beneficiary of the Edo State government reintegration programme said.
According to Esosa, the pain and experience she went through in trying to cross over to Italy were unbearable.
She would rather stay and invest in her country, Nigeria, than risk her life again.
“I lost my friends in the desert and at sea. I will rather stay and invest in my country than risk my life in the hands of smugglers again. I am glad to have returned home safely and something doing now,” she said.
Another returnee identified as Frank Obeahon, physically challenged, thanked and commended the Edo State government for the repatriation gesture.
Obeahon noted that if youths were engaged, they would not seek greener pastures anywhere else.
Obeahon who shared his close shave with death experience in Libya was full of gratitude to God for seeing him through.
He said “people travel out of the country because of the frustration they experience in the country. If they were meaningfully engaged, many of them would jettison the idea of travelling out for greener pastures.
Travelling through these routes is a matter of life and death and the chances of getting to the destination are 50-50 because a lot of people die in the process”.