At least 12 Nigerian miners who were rescued from forced work in the CAR have returned home and told of the torture they endured, including claims of sexual assault at the hands of their Chinese employers.
The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, formally visited the men in Abuja on Friday after their frantic plea for assistance went viral in a video three weeks ago.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Igorigo Freeborn described how they were subjected to months of hard labour without compensation from their Chinese employers as well as sexual exploitation and other cruel forms of abuse.
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“We were homosexually abused by our Chinese employers in CAR. I am not ashamed to say it. I want other people to learn from it,” he said.
He continued: “They owed us 11 months of salaries. We were treated badly there, but thank God we are alive to tell our stories,” Freeborn said in a statement signed by the NiDCOM spokesperson, Abdur-rahman Balogun.
In the statement, Freeborn claimed that after leaving Nigeria in pursuit of better prospects, the workers suffered for almost two years.
“I used to think nothing good could come out of Nigeria, but we were so happy to receive help and succour from our own country,” he said, thanking the Nigerian government for acting quickly when their predicament became public.
“Let me use this opportunity to thank President Bola Tinubu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the CAR Ambassador in Bangui, NIDCOM, NEMA, Immigration and all those who helped.”
Following the video appeal, the Federal Government organised steps to move the workers to the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), give them with medical care, and guarantee their safe return home through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian Mission in Bangui.
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According to the release, Dabiri-Erewa assured the returnees that the government would seek justice on their behalf and denounced the acts as cruel and intolerable during her speech.
She also encouraged the returnees to support initiatives to educate other Nigerians about the dangers of illegal migration and to act as activists against it.
