“The man took me to Libya and the very first day he sold me to a woman. She took me to her place and told me to start working. I asked her what work, she told me to put on shorts and that I was doing prostitution work. I told her I wouldn’t.” She recalls.
But after being beaten and abused she resigned herself to her fate. The only way for her to continue to Europe was to earn money so she could pay the traffickers what they claimed she owed them. She was sold first to one madam, then to another. Deborah says both were very wicked persons, like the devil himself.
“They poured cold water from the fridge on my body and started to beat me and said I must work. I didn’t want to work because in Libya people have a lot of diseases.” Deborah says.
After some time, Deborah was taken to Sabratha at the coast and there she met a man who paid the rest of her debt and released her. They decided to go to Europe together and after several attempts met a smuggler who agreed to send them across the sea. The journey was difficult. They were 26 persons on board a small wooden boat, four of them pregnant women and six children. Now in Malta, Deborah has harsh words for the smugglers who promise people an easy trip to Europe:
“Go to Europe - it’s all a lie! You will be sold in Libya. Life in Libya now is very harsh.”
