Meet Ricky
Ricky (Nigeria) in Padova, Italy. 25 May 2018. ©Pamela Kerpius/Migrants of the Mediterranean
by:
Pamela Kerpius
Recorded:
25 May 2018
Published:
June 2018
Revised:
1/12/25
Meet Ricky.
28 years old and from Anambra State, Nigeria.
To reach Italy he crossed three countries: Nigeria, Niger, and the most dangerous of all, Libya.
His journey took seven months in total.
He traveled through Nigeria to Agadez, Niger, where he met a caravan of trucks to take the group, inclusive of himself and more than 200 people across the desert.
Ricky crossed the Sahara desert in the back of a pickup truck so overcrowded sticks were planted in the base of the bed to give him leverage during the bumpy ride. It’s a typical modification made for the desert crossings, but in this case, it was not enough to keep everyone inside. Multiple people fell and died, Ricky said. Nor was there enough water. Some had to drink their urine to survive.
He arrived in Sabha, Libya, his first stop in the country, where he was imprisoned for two months. His eyes darted around as he spoke, as he remembered, “It was so terrible.”
He clutched his chest, “It was so fucking terrible there,” said Ricky. His friend, Kensington (Nigeria), at his side during our interview, said it was giving him flashbacks and left in a rush soon thereafter.
“There were lots of gunshots everywhere.”
When the traffickers at the compound would transport him through Sabha he was put in the back of a car with sheets thrown over him so no one would see him.
He was let out of prison, then made his way to Garian*. He looked for work on the street, but there, small boys (young Libyan kids with guns) kidnapped him and sold him to new traffickers.
He was held in prison in Garian for three months. We do not know the conditions or human rights abuses he faced, just that “there were lots of gunshots everywhere.”
He made it to the coastal camp in Sabratha, Libya, were he stayed before departing for the sea.
Ricky crossed the Mediterranean Sea in a rubber dinghy with 300 people, including elderly men, multiple women and children, and numerous babies. In total, he was out to sea for eight hours. During which, the boat capsized, breaking in two and throwing every passenger in the water. He watched a woman holding her baby sink into the sea and die. More drowned around him.
He was rescued by a German NGO, and was then transferred to another vessel, possibly the Guardia Costiera, and landed in Lampedusa on 10 June 2016. Since being transferred off the island, Ricky has been staying in Padova, Italy, where we recorded this story on 25 May 2018.
Ricky is an amazing human being.
*City name and spelling not verified.