Three Nigerian women, 36-year-old Adetunji Opeyemi Elizabeth, 28-year-old Aladetan Rachael Tinuola and 24-year-old Adebayo Blessing Favour, who are currently in detention in prison in Karada, Baghdad, Iraq, for not having residence permits, have cried out to the Nigerian government for urgent help to return home.

Speaking with SaharaReporters in a phone interview organised by a human rights advocacy organisation in Nigeria, Hopes Haven Foundation, one of the detained women, Adetunji, however said that they were not trafficked to the Middle-East country, as they travelled to the country for a greener pasture but situation turned against their expectations.

Adetunji said, “We got arrested for not having resident permits. We came to Iraq through an agent,” adding that the agent in Nigeria, one Adekunle Oladiola, who “is like a brother to me,” processed her visa in Nigeria through which she travelled to Iraq.

However, she, like several others from Nigeria and other African countries, was picked up at the Iraq airport on her arrival by one agency which she said she doesn’t know the name of because it was written in Arabic language.

“The person (the agent) is a brother to me. One of my cousins has been here (Iraq) for three years, and she has been working and that motivated me. I told my brother (Adekunle) to process my visa, which he did,” Adetunji told SaharaReporters.

She said that before she left Nigeria, “Things were not going well since I graduated far back in 2013 and I couldn’t get a good job. I thought that instead of going up and down in Nigeria doing what does not make sense, I decided to come (to Iraq) and hustle.

“When we got to the airport, they (people from the agency in Iraq) came and picked us. We didn’t even have access to check any name or anything. Once we entered the office, we have entered.

“Any time a customer needs us, they would come to the office and take us. There was no way to check the name of the office or anything.”

Asked the kind of customers she meant, Adetunji said, “People from outside. They come and if they like any of us, they would take us to go and work with them.”

She said October 2024 made her two years in Iraq, meaning she has been in the country for two years and three months, but she was arrested in September 2024 before she completed two years of her stay in the country.

Asked the kind of work she was doing in Iraq before she was arrested, she said, “I told them when I was in Nigeria that I want to work in Salon and they said no problem, that they would get a salon for me.

“When I got here, they got me a salon but after two months, the woman said she didn’t want me again and she took me back to the office.

“After she took me back to the office, I spent about five months in the office doing nothing. They couldn’t get me a job. They said they couldn’t get me a salon job except I would work in the house and I told them I cannot work in the house because I don’t want to work as a house help.

“I can only work in the salon and that is the only job I can do. They asked me to wait. One day they came and said they got a caregiving job for me at one place to be taking care of an old woman, and that there is an African lady there already who I will be doing it with.

“I had no choice but to accept since there is another lady there. When I was working there, there was a problem and my boss threatened to kill me. He told me he would make me go back to my country. I was scared.

“I said I came to hustle for my life and he wants to take my life, I won’t wait for that to happen to me. I said I wanted to go back to the office because he threatened to kill me. I got back to the office.”

She however said that before the caregiving job was given to her, the office where she and others used to stay said they were closing down their business and that everyone should go back to their countries.

“They sent some people back to their countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan because they couldn’t get them job.”

According to her, after her problem with her employer, she went back to the office “But the office said they don’t have a space for me to enter anymore. I had no choice but to go to away because it would have been very disastrous for me to go back to where I was working.

“The man can eliminate me immediately because his house is surrounded with guns. Here they use guns anyhow. So when the office said they don’t have space for me again, I sorted myself out.”

Asked if the name of the office they used to stay and get jobs, she said the name of the office was written in Arabic and that they were never given any opportunity to take a photo or details of the office, adding that the office has completely been shut down.

She said, “We were not allowed to even go outside or do anything. And they have closed it now. They are no longer in operation for more than a year.”

She further explained that she is currently in prison not because her visa expired but because she and two other Nigerian women in the prison with her do not have residence permits.

According to her, “When they arrested us, they took us to the court and asked us if we have residence permits and we said it was not done for us. They said we will be going back to our country and we said we are ready to go back.

“They brought us to the immigration and we still told them we are ready to go back to our country. That once they permit us to book our tickets, we will book our tickets. Now, they are not ready to book our tickets and I personally told them I’m ready to book my ticket but that is the problem because they have not allowed me to book my ticket.”

Asked how they are being treated in the prison, she said they are not being tortured but lamented that they are being fed with unhealthy foods.

“Presently we are three Nigerians here (Adetunji Opeyemi Elizabeth, Aladetan Rachael Tinuola and Adebayo Blessing Favour). Sometimes they bring spoiled foods. Many times.

“Personally, I go days without eating because I can’t cope with their food. At the station we were before, I used to call some of my friends to cook for me. Sometimes they cooked with their money, sometimes I sent them money.

“But at the station we are now, sometimes they bring food that is not properly cooked. Foods that can damage our organs. Yet, we have been telling them we want to go and they have been postponing it. I asked if I should book my ticket but they said I should not book until they ask me to do so.

“I want to go because this place is not a good place for me. I discovered it after I got here. Any issue between a Black and the White here, they don’t even listen to the Black and they start maltreatment immediately.

“As I speak, I’m not feeling well at all and I told them from day one. I have been managing my health. I’m having severe back pain.I need doctor’s assistance. Let me go back to my country.

“They wanted to take me to the hospital here but I refused because they take people to hospital and give them treatment that doesn’t match their medical needs and some of them loss their lives.”

Asked if they had reached out to any Nigerian community in Iraq considering the fact that Nigeria does not have an Embassy in Iraq, he said no.