Fleeing refugees resting in Ras-el-Jdir, the Tunisian border crosspoint with Libya, on Tuesday Photo:NAN

Fleeing refugees resting in Ras-el-Jdir, the Tunisian border crosspoint with Libya, on Tuesday Photo:NAN

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The 170 Nigerians arrived the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos aboard an Air Malta last 
Wednesday, bringing the total number of evacuees from the Nigerian strife-torn Libya to about 2, 000.

But sources who spoke by telephone from different regions in Libya argued that the number of Nigerians stranded in the countries of North Africa is enormous.
"What they had managed to do is bring like 5 people in 1000," said Osita Osemene, the founder of Patriotic Citizen Initiatives, a nongovernmental organization that focuses on issues of desert migration and human trafficking, and which communicates with Nigerians living in Libya.
Libya, with a population of just over 6 million, is the largest producer of crude oil 17th in the world and the third in Africa. It is also the largest continent crude oil reserves.
However, the uprising which began on Feb. 15 led to thousands of foreigners fleeing the country rich in oil.
Citizens Stranded
About 40,000 people are stranded on the side of the border with Libya, with the number growing daily, as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.
"They call me from Libya to tell me what happens because they know I have a project that attempts to campaign against illegal immigration and try to see how we can work with government to save some some of those are blocked. They keep calling me, pleading for help because people are dying, people trapped, "said Osemene.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Nigerian agency co-ordination of the evacuation of its citizens, said it had evacuated about 2,500 people since the crisis began.
"The operation has seen the deployment of four chartered planes with a capacity for 500 passengers each, as well as a commercial aircraft that could accommodate about 200 passengers, said Muhammad Sani Sidi, Director General of NEMA.
The agency said it was 2,000 Nigerians, but he discovered that most Nigerians had continued to converge stranded in remote areas of Libya at Tripoli airport, seeking to be evacuated to Nigeria.
A survey conducted at the site of NEXT revealed that 85 percent of respondents were in favor of the government to evacuate Nigerians in that troubled country.
Last Wednesday, more than 5,000 Nigerians are brought together at Tripoli airport waiting to be airborne.
"Almost everyone in Libya is illegal migrants. Libya is a transit route to Europe. Eighty-five percent of Nigerians in Libya are illegal migrants, they are all in the way of Europe. Most of them ran aground in Libya and just stayed there, "said Osemene.
Xenophobic attacks
The latest incident is the second in a decade that Nigerian citizens are evacuated from the countries of North Africa.
In October 2000, Nigerians and other black Africans resident in Libya have been receiving a spate of xenophobic attacks of their hosts Libya.
More than 4,000 Nigerians were repatriated from Libya in a mass evacuation ordered by the federal government.
Segun Olowofoyeku did odd jobs in Tripoli when the crisis erupted 11 years ago and returned to Nigeria later.
"One of my friends had been murdered outside the Nigerian embassy we decided to camp in the refugee camps," recalled Mr. Olowofoyeku, 32.
"I said to my place to die, I should go home. So I went back to Nigeria with only two pairs of pants and two shirts," he added.
Travel in the desert
Each year, tens of thousands of Africans - men and women - to undertake the perilous journey across the Sahara desert from their home country in Europe to seek economic opportunities.
Libya is home to more than one million foreign workers employed in different sectors of its economy, including petroleum, construction, agriculture and service industries. Foreign workers from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
In 2004, Mr. Osemene was among the hundreds of Nigerians who have left the northern state of Kano, in the Sahara in North Africa.
"When I started the trip, I never really knew I was going to Libya. What I said was that I went to Spain and we'll go by road. Nobody talked about the desert for me because I never had the experience of the desert in my life, "said Osemene.
"They capitalized on my status at that time, I had to leave the country. I was desperate, there was no work, nothing happened, my business collapsed. I wanted a change environment, "he said.
After a stay in Libya, winding from the observation that "there is no way to Europe via Libya," Mr Osemene returned to Nigeria some years ago, to establish patriotic citizens initiative.
"This organization has been charged to the urge to share my experience and thus discourage people from migrating to Europe through the desert among other social vices which are consequences of this, such as trafficking in human beings. In addition, to facilitate the repatriation of immigrants in distress and their rehabilitation, "said Osemene.
Discourage the tendency
Recently, the organization of Mr. Osemene to develop an awareness seminar in Lagos, "The role of carriers in illegal immigration," to educate youth about the dangers of staying through the desert in a foreign country.
"Nigerians in the Sahara Desert, if left unchecked, are more Nigerians in Libya. Some of them are crazy, some of them have lost their memories, and some of them are there for two or three years. I said if we do not take it aggressively to conduct such campaigns in the streets, there will be problems, "said Osemene.
"I wanted a situation where we know their role, the public will know their role, and we integrate them into what we do because I know that drivers play a vital role in transporting both traffickers and victims of trafficking. They are very important, "he added.
Mr. Osemene travails in the desert along the trafficking routes will be published next week.