Abuja - They travel in droves across the Sahara desert in search of greener pastures in Europe, but many would-be Nigerian immigrants find only death as they flee rampant poverty in Africa's most populous country. Some die in the Sahara, while those who make it through the scorching sands often drown as they are ferried from Morocco or Tunisia to Europe.
Only on Monday, 14 Africans were feared to have drowned off southern Spain after their boat capsized amid four-metre waves.
Twenty-three Nigerians were rescued from the capsized boat, which set out from Morocco on Saturday.
Thousands of Africans are believed to have drowned in similar circumstances, but even those who do not lose their lives face a quick return or jail sentences, particularly in Libya.
More than 100 Nigerians have been returned this year, officials said in Abuja.
The reason for the exodus is simple.
Despite Nigeria's oil wealth, more than 70 per cent of its 146 million residents live below one dollar a day, compelling unemployed and adventurous youths to eye a better life in Europe.
Human traffickers offer them good jobs in exchange for a fee, but the women who make it often end up as prostitutes, while the men pick up menial jobs or become pimps or drug couriers.
Last month, six Nigerian girls deported from Burkina Faso were handed over to immigration officials at the border between Nigeria and Republic of Benin.
Immigration controller at the border, Emmanuel Gbuga, said that the girls, aged between 14 and 18 years, had likely been lured to Burkina Faso with the promise of good jobs in Europe.
But the girls could probably count themselves lucky to have been caught.
Once victim of trafficking told Nigeria's National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) that she had to sleep with 30 men daily to pay off her debt to her trafficker.
Arinze Orakue, Head of Media at NAPTIP said the girl was a minor who had recently been repatriated from Italy.
"Society and parents of victims all pretend that trafficking is normal and turn the other eye while the problem persists and keeps recurring," he said.
Gbuga said that despite publicity campaigns to warn of the dangers, many people were still falling victim to the illicit trade through a combination of greed, poverty, unemployment and illiteracy.
One woman in Benin, southwest Nigeria, who simply wanted to be identified as Felicia, is ignoring the warnings in hope of a better life.
She sold the house she inherited from her dead husband to finance the trip of two of her daughters to Europe when a relative who "arranged everything" assured her it was the easiest way out of poverty.
"They will make good money there, I am told, and return to build a better house for me," she said.
