Helen was held in Libya, where she endured violence and abuse. Today, she is waiting to be transferred to Europe thanks to a resettlement program promoted by the EU, IOM and UNHCR.
Helen, 25, is a migrant currently living at a hosting center in Niamey, Niger. Very thin, her long hair swept up in a bun, she asks not to be photographed. After finding shelter for the first time in Niger, she talks of her hope for a better future and about her life in Libya.
"Trash, we were treated like trash", she said of that period. "I will never forget what I experienced in Libya for the rest of my life".
One-year-long detention in Libya, Helen is one of many people rescued from slavery at a Libyan camp as well as from a potential dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea.
She has the right to asylum and, thanks to the 'Niger model' - approved at a summit in Valletta in 2015, thanks to the willingness of Niger authorities to cooperate with the EU, UN and IOM - she is now waiting to legally move to Europe as part of a resettlement program. She will go to Belgium, which has pledged, together with the Netherlands, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Great Britain, to welcome 2,731 resettlements from Niger in the 2018-2019 period.
Helen fled Eritrea where "there is military service, you can't study, or work, you can't do what you want. You can't live". But after a long trip, Helen ended up in the hands of human traffickers. She was held for a year in Libya. "Women in particular were raped and abused. We were always hungry, they never gave us water, I saw many people die".
Now, thanks to the program ETM (Emergency Transit Mechanism) managed by the UNHCR with EU funding (56 million), Helen and about 60 women aged 18 to 35, plus several minors, are staying at one of about 20 hosting houses managed by Italy's Coopi. Helen says she would like to "go back to school and become a psychologist to help people like me, who experienced trauma, to overcome the problems they have. I am so thankful and will never be able to thank enough the European Union and the UN for what they did for me.They saved my life".
The 'Niger model' to be reproduced
The 'Niger model' is an example which the president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, wants to reproduce in other countries of the Sahel, as it "solves the problem at its root, in Africa". One of the next countries to be affected will be Burkina Faso.
Niger has accepted to take the migrants rescued in Libya or apprehended while they were traveling to the country as a temporary solution - on average 3-6 months - before they are repatriated home, if they are economic migrants, or before they travel to Europe if they have the right to obtain asylum.
IOM manages the first group and has already repatriated voluntarily 12,000 people who were granted funding to start a business. The second group is instead managed by the UNHCR, which has so far evacuated 1,536 people from Libya, including 207 who have already resettled, while 1,329 are still waiting to move.