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By: Manoah Kikekon
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Oyebade Rachael a 27-year-old Nigerian girl trafficked to Iraq has cried out for help after two years of suffering, pleading for the support of Nigeria for her to return home after going through surgery.
In an exclusive interview with News Peddlers, she said her life is now in danger as she goes through torture every day without food, and the Iraqi man she works for is not ready to let her go with her deteriorating health condition.
Rachael said "It happened that it was two flights that took me to Iraq, one from Lagos to Cairo and from there to Baghdad. The organisation that facilitated the travel came to pick us up at the airport. Travelling here, it's an organisation that will sponsor the travel from Nigeria. The money the agents collected is to bribe them at the airport, at times N300,00 or N400,000 is paid.
"Immediately we arrived, they displayed us outside, and people came to assess us to pick any of us that could be useful for the purposes they needed the person for. Anyone who picks any of us will be the one to pay the money the organisation used to facilitate our travel as if we were bought, and the organisation does not want to know if we are okay or not, their own is just to collect money from the buyer.
"I was given an agreement to sign when someone paid the organisation that brought me here but the agreement was written in Arabic, so I don't know anything written there, and I was happy that I'm going to get a job, where I'll make money that'll be sent to Nigeria to take care of our families. It happened that in the agreement we signed, it was written that all responsibilities for buying clothes and getting us accommodation were on the person who paid for me.
"It happened that the person who took me kept intimidating me, which I don't like, and the belief is that the contract we signed will end in two years, and I will now have to decide if I'm staying or not after the two years, or I may decide to renew the agreement.
"The person that took me did not give me the job we agreed that I'd do, we agreed on pedicures and manicures; but when I got to his house, I work in the spa and as a housekeeper, and there's no food, nothing at all, it's not easy for me, he beat me even when I wanted to collect my salary I'll keep begging, he'll cease my phone, he maltreat me badly, the black are nothing to them here. At some point I started having issues with my stomach, because most times I did not eat, but I was enduring, believing that my contract would soon end and I'd have my freedom. The stomach has been hurting me for a while; it got worse when I got here.
"There was a day, the pain was very serious. It was all over me that I wasn't OK. He told me I was pretending, he said I should keep working. I'm working here in agony. The work has turned me into a person with disabilities, with no rest every minute or every hour. We only have very little sleep at night. It eventually happened that I had to go for a surgical operation on July 11, 2023. Which is said to be an appendix operation. I only spent one day in the hospital. After three days, he started frustrating me by saying that I needed to start working. Meanwhile, the doctor had said until 10 days before the stitches could be removed.
"The doctor had told told him to support me to walk, which was done only the first day I came back from the hospital. On the second day, I was forced to walk myself, which made stitches cut. and on the third, the child of the visitor had misplaced my drugs. I continued working tirelessly in the house. I had to tell him I didn't have the strength for the work anymore, as at then I had stayed for 1 year and 5 months. He beat me mercilessly for saying I did not want to work for him anymore. He spit on me. I thought that would be the end of my life. He smashed my phone on the floor.
"As I speak to you, my body is not complete anymore, my right hand is not active like before. Most of the time, he doesn't give me food. As at the time he was renovating where I work, I was forced to lift heavy things which is against what the doctor said that I should not lift anything heavy, still he didn't give me my salary".
He has now instilled fear in me. I can't face him anymore, any small thing he will shout at me. My left arm is broken. I'm just managing it. The spot where I was operated on hurts me so much. Someone bought me food today, because he didn't give me food. As I'm talking right now, I sleep under the staircase, I completed my contract with him on March 6, and I told him he should book my flight back to Nigeria since my contract with him is over. He said he had heard me since then, and to this moment, I am in agony right now. Please, I'm in pains, Nigerians please help me.