Precious and Osagie's story: Danger at every turn

Description

For Precious and Osagie, life in Nigeria began to deteriorate when herdsmen started grazing their cattle on their crops. Tensions escalated into attacks between the herdsmen and the whole community and it was no longer safe for them to stay. Osagie decided to travel to Libya first through a friend who would sponsor him. Precious wanted to join him and met someone who told her she could work as a housemaid in Libya. The desert journey to Libya was enough to make them regret leaving. Passengers fell from their overcrowded vehicles and they passed freshly dug graves for other travellers who perished on the road. Precious was almost abandoned in Niger when her smuggler hadn’t paid the driver to take them. They found themselves in Libya amid lawless chaos. Osagie was robbed by armed gangs, who would steal the money he’d worked hard to earn – if his employer had decided to pay him that month. Precious was forced to work without rest and with little food, but had no choice but to continue in order to pay back the money for her journey. Once she had finally done this, she went to live with Osagie and they had a child. Although they were together, the daily onslaught of gunfire, gangsters and robbery meant they would never be safe there. Osagie didn’t want to risk the sea journey, but after his neighbour’s house was destroyed by a rocket he knew he could wait no longer. They made a fraught four-day journey across the sea, with no food or water to give their baby and under threat of attack from another passenger with a knife. Their ordeal came to an end when they were rescued and taken to Malta, a journey that neither of them believed they would ever survive.

Metadata

Published to Youtube on: 28/06/2020

Archived on: 30/09/2025

Original URL (may no longer be available): https://youtube.com/watch?v=3w8SwXl-Oe8