By Adama Sillah
Mariama, who just arrived from Kuwait City, the capital of the Arabian country on the Persian Gulf, recalls how she got tied down as a maid not long after arriving in the Kingdom of Kuwait.
“I am aware there are no job opportunities in my country and I expect to get a good job once I travel abroad,” she says, speaking to newsmen at the offices of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Freetown upon her return home late last year.
Kadiatu, 27, who sells her wares at Abacha Street in central Freetown had suffered a fate similar to another woman named Mabinty. She recounts the violence she lived through, also working in Libya as a maid after traveling there with the help of smugglers.
“In some of these homes, and also prisons, we were beaten and held to ransom. We had to call our families and the government of Sierra Leone to ask for money for us to be released,” Kadiatu explains.
Like many young people in Africa, young Sierra Leonean women who are keen on the prospect of a better life abroad often fall for the promises of a better future but end up in a maze of difficulties. However, as the spotlight falls on these migrants, there is focus on so many women left behind or those stranded in transit or destination countries.
In 2018 IOM, together with the government of Sierra Leone, received more than 250 migrants from other countries who got stranded and had to return. Abdulai had his own experience when his daughter left for neighboring Conakry to buy wares and did not come back at the time she was due to return. At first thought he felt that his daughter, Sally, might have been involved in an accident. Three days later Sally’s friends finally broke the silence and told him she had gone to Libya, a trip locally dubbed “Temple Run”.
According to a recent UN report, there are now an estimated 258 million people living in a country other than their country of birth. Abuse of migrants is happening in many places. Most recently, in Libya, there were allegations of migrants being sold off in slave markets. Early this month, 60 migrants returned to Sierra Leone from Libya with help from the IOM.
Historically, there has been considerable movement by Sierra Leoneans over the borders to and from Guinea, Liberia and other countries. Since the civil war in 1991, hundreds of thousands of refugees have left Sierra Leone. The war had had widespread impact on the country - destroyed educational infrastructure, hospitals and other facilities. This flight, driven by mainly economic factors, has seen countless professional and skilled workers migrate to either Europe of North Africa. Many years after the war, the country still lacks economic development opportunities and is still plagued by deplorable economic conditions and low wages which have led to a significant rise in migration.
In recent years, we have seen a rapid increase in migration issues. Young people, more especially in the pursuit of so-called greener pastures. Each year, thousands of young people go through Temple Run to escape poverty and chronic underemployment. They rely on the services of fraudulent agents who require them to pay big money for fake jobs or study abroad.
The Migration explosion, nicknamed Temple Run, describes the risky journey young Sierra Leoneans, some of them victims of trafficking, take through the desert and the sea to Europe.
In Freetown, Sierra Leone’s vibrant capital, so many young women could barely take care of themselves or are looking for a better life in an economically challenged country like Sierra Leone. So, when such opportunity knocks at their doors they seize it. Most of them have to fundraise to embark on this journey.
In November 2017, the IOM recorded well over 1,400 Sierra Leoneans, including survivors of trafficking, stranded in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security, with support from international partners, then developed a draft labour policy to curb illegal migration. Amongst the issues the document captures is the treatment of migrants and how to ensure they contribute to national development.
Migration is emerging as one of the most critical, social and economic issues of this decade. It has become prominent around the world, with so many horrors associated with it.
In recent times lots of videos have been making the rounds on social media on allegation of mistreatment and sexual abuse of Sierra Leonean women who are still in the Middle East as domestic workers. Migration has in the recent past attracted media attention in Sierra Leone and often the major issues surround allegations of abuses to Sierra Leonean women in foreign countries.
As a result of this, there is the need for the government of Sierra Leone and the IOM to support the return of migrants from transit and destination countries in Africa, most of whom do not have valid travelling documents to facilitate access to consular services.
© 2019 Politico Online
