Meet Destiny
Destiny (Nigeria) in Lampedusa, Italy. 29 April 2017. ©Pamela Kerpius/Migrants of the Mediterranean
by:
Pamela Kerpius
Recorded:
29 April 2017
Published:
May 2017
Revised:
1/10/25
Meet Destiny.
22 years old and from Imo, Nigeria.
To reach Lampedusa he crossed three countries: Nigeria, Niger, and the most dangerous of all, Libya.
His trip took about seven months. He spent two weeks in Niger, then crossed the Sahara desert, which took two weeks in total – an exceptionally long time considering the average trip takes four days. He slept on the ground; eight passengers died along the way.
He arrived in Sabha, Libya and remained there for two weeks. He was beaten and given electric shock. Two of his friends died.
He arrived by unknown means in an unknown timeframe in Sabratha, Libya, the coastal camp outside of Tripoli, and stayed for two months.
“…small boys will beat you,
they will try and kill you.”
In Sabratha, he said, “You cannot work, because…small boys will beat you, they will try and kill you. I [was] afraid to go out.”*
He made multiple attempts at crossing the sea. On the first try, he was caught and brought to prison. Others he knew died. One 18-year-old passenger, his friend, died at sea. There were 137 people on board that boat. Small boys with machine guns robbed the survivors.
Destiny spent one month in prison in Sabratha.
He would not talk about what happened inside prison because he did not want to cry. He was already broken up recalling his friend’s death in the sea.
On his second attempt, Destiny crossed the Mediterranean Sea in mid-April 2017 in a rubber dinghy with 130 people, including five pregnant women and one newborn baby.
His was rescued by the Guardia Costiera and taken to Lampedusa, Sicily, landing on Saturday, 15 April 2017.
Destiny is an amazing human being.
*This is a common account of people who’ve come through the camp, leaving them two options: One, go outside and risk being killed, enslaved, or captured; or two, stay inside the camp, where they’ll find few necessities (like fresh water, food, and bathing facilities), and be forced to brace themselves against the sea air at night without blankets, beds, or shelter.