Can Slavery in Libya Increase the HIV Pandemic?

Weeks after the CNN video on horrifying tales of slavery in Libya broke the internet, I could not muster up the "courage" to watch the videos-including some graphic pictures(I decided not to post any here).To say its sickening is an understatement. I cannot fathom why fellow Africans from same ancestors tour this most degrading path.

"Does anybody need a digger? This is a digger, a big strong man, he'll dig,"- the human being salesman. The world is yet to get over the 26 Young Nigerian Women Found Dead in Mediterranean Sea". The emergence of the slave auctions is like being sentence to death/sent to the gallows. For what crime/s- what are their charges? Fleeing conflict or economic conditions at home in search of better opportunities in Europe.

Thunderclap-Credits:PEPFAR

No, I am not focusing on the mental health impact of the slavery because even a "lay" man (used "traumatic/horrifying" to qualify the mental harm) does not need a Psychologist to spell-out the life-time mental torture/damage to the victims.

As a HIV Testing Services consultant, my concerns are on the sexual abuse and organ harvest among the surviving girls, women and men alike. Yes, the men are equally raped by their "masters". The smugglers are left with a backlog of would-be passengers on their hands due to recent clampdown.The smugglers become masters, the migrants and refugees become slaves; right here on planet earth-not subjugation by an alien Warrior Lord/Kings from Mars or Jupiter!

Today is the global World AIDS Day 2017 with the theme "Right to health". Nigeria’s HIV epidemic affects all population groups and geographic areas of the country. It is the second largest epidemic globally. Key populations are disproportionately impacted by the epidemic.

I shivered at my thoughts on the high health risks being faced by victims; contracting the HIV virus, other sexually transmitted infections or worse. Trans-border infections have given rise to rapid spread of communicable diseases like Ebola.Can you imagine the prospect for HIV/AIDS transmission from the bondage? Is this not a cause for alarm?
RELATED:FACTS AND MYTHS ABOUT HIV/AID

"For Nigeria girls, it is pretty standard, the issue of being trafficked, it is a regional network, I have seen younger than 14, and they are alone. The estimated age of the recently buried Nigerian women were 14-18-UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Italy.

Adolescents and young people represent a growing share of people living with HIV worldwide. In 2016 alone, 610,000 young people between the ages of 15 to 24 were newly infected with HIV, of whom 260,000 were adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19. To compound this, most recent data indicate that only 15% of adolescent girls and 10 per cent of adolescent boys aged 15-19 in sub-Saharan Africa – the region most affected by HIV – have been tested for HIV in the past 12 months and received the result of the last test. If current trends continue, hundreds of thousands more will become HIV-positive in the coming years-World Health Organization, WHO.
READ ALSO: KEY FACTS ON HIV PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA&GLOBALLY

"EVERY BODY COUNTS"

Nigeria leaders were among the global leaders that signed up to the Sustainable Development Goals in In 2015, with the aim to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030. I am not voicing my pains on why Nigeria is failing to meet the African Union (AU) "Abuja Declaration" on health expenditure here(The percentage on the proposed 2018 health budget falls way below the agreement signed by Nigeria's government along with other African leaders to appropriate at least 15% to improve the health sector).Nigeria’s health situation is of growing to concern especially in the insurgency ravaged North East(NE) . International and local funding/interventions are heavily focused on the NE security crisis equally affecting women, girls and children.

Will the returning migrants have the "Right to health" when the average Nigerian based citizen's "Right to health" is a far cry from being met? Do you think the migrants health and economic rehabilitation will be top government priority?

"Everybody counts"-"Leave no one behind". These are WHO slogans aimed at advocating for access to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines, including medicines, diagnostics and other health commodities as well as health care services for all people in need, while also ensuring that they are protected against financial risks. Why has the government yet to make sustainable impacts of the SDGs? (SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages).

One 21-year-old Nigerian migrant who was sold for at a slave auction said he fled home and spent a year and four months and his life savings trying to reach Europe because he was tired of the rampant corruption in Nigeria's Edo state.

MY UTOPIA ON THE RETURNING MIGRANTS

The Nigerian government had been working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). the Nigerian National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) and other local agencies to bring Nigerians back home. 242 stranded migrants landed at Lagos airport on a Libyan Airlines flight on Tuesday. Among them were women carrying children and at least one man in a wheelchair.

Nigerian National Assembly

I have heard several Nigeria's authorities proclamations to condemn the auctioning of Nigerians at the Libya slave markets like common "goats" . I am far most interested in seeing how these "laudable" declarations/actions will translate to improved health/economic or Psychosocial support for the returnees. 

Free health examination/check-up with voluntary HIV screening for these vulnerable groups is a great step in the right direction. Non-Governmental Organizations and private sector can lead actions in these respects. #SOS #MindTopia #ACTNOW.