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Nigerian miners who were stranded in the Central African Republic (CAR) have said their Chinese male employers sexually abused them.
Naija News reports that Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) in conjunction with key government agencies, facilitated the evacuation of the miners from a remote village in CAR, where they had been stranded, to the Nigerian embassy in Bangui, the country’s capital, and eventually to Abuja on Thursday.
Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols at NiDCOM, Abdurrahman Balogun, in a statement disclosed that the 12 miners were received by the commission’s Chairperson, Abike Dabiri-Erewa.
Speaking at the NiDCOM office, leader of the rescued workers, Igorigo Freeborn, recalled how they lived in harsh, unsafe conditions in the forest after their recruiters abandoned them without pay.
Freeborn said amid 11 months’ unpaid salaries, “we were homosexually abused by our Chinese employers in CAR.
“I am not ashamed to say it. I want other people to learn from it. We were treated badly there, but thank God for sparing our lives to tell the stories today.”
While urging the federal government to help redress the injustices they suffered at the hands of their employers, Freeborn said he was an unpatriotic citizen who did not “think anything good can come out of the country, but we were all so happy to receive help and succour from Nigeria”.
Addressing the miners, Dabiri-Erewa described their ordeal as inhumane and assured that justice will be served, saying the commission in conjunction with relevant government agencies would take up the matter.
Dabiri-Erewa counselled the rescued men to be of good behaviour and partner with the commission in its advocacy on irregular migration and its consequences.
NiDCOM provided the miners with cash support to help them resettle pending payment of their salaries.
The post ‘We Were Sexually Abused By Chinese Employers’ – Rescued Nigerian Miners Recount Ordeal appeared first on Naija News.
