Nigerian migrants rescued after Libya cell video goes viral
Nigerian migrants held in Libya were rescued after releasing a video from their cell that went viral on social media and caught the attention of authorities. A group of migrants held inside a detention centre in Zawiya in Libya, risked their lives to shoot the video in July, showing poor living conditions and people pleading for help.
"They refuse to deport us," says a man in the video that was shared over WhatsApp and other social networks. "We are suffering here, we are dying here... they are keeping us here for business." The video was sent to France 24 Observers, a citizen journalism initiative, in July .
After seeing the video, the journalists flagged the attention of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which helps organize voluntary returns from Libyan detention camps.
The migrants returned to Nigeria on Aug 30. "If not for that video we wouldn't have been able to come back to Nigeria, I believe that," Efe Onyeka, a 25-year-old Nigerian who shot the video, told AFP. Onyeka was arrested trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe where he had dreams of becoming a footballer.
Shooting the video put his life in danger. Another Nigerian who helped film was almost beaten to death by guards, said Onyeka.In the end, Onyeka spent over four months in detention.
