BERTHE

Autumn 2016, Cameroon: a 34-year-old woman flees because of political problems.

A few weeks later, 2016, Nigeria: a group of migrants meet by chance and aim for Algeria. The woman is alone with leg problems. She tags along. They pay the traffickers who, upon reaching the Niger border, abandon them.

Later in 2016, Niger: the woman lives in the house of a Tuareg who gets paid for a room and to contact the traffickers.

Beginning of 2017, Niger desert: the group tries again to leave. During the journey they are literally sold and enslaved. The woman is desperate for money. She calls her sister, “Sell my land.”

Some time later: back to Algeria.

Early 2017, Algeria: a manhunt of Black people breaks out in the country.

Spring 2017: the woman flees again, gets more money sent and pays a trafficker 2,000 euros. There is a very long walk to make, and the woman cannot hold on. She is carried by travelling companions she has just met.

2017, Algeria-Libya border, “And then they took the women.” They are repeatedly raped.

Summer 2017, Libya.

Some time later, Tripoli: raid by Libyan police forces with whom, on February 2, the Italian government signed an agreement to “counter illegal immigration.” The woman ends up in a prison. “I saw death there. So many were looking for drugs to commit suicide I was just waiting to die.”

End of 2017: the UN vacates the place where the woman is being held and opens a file on her.

2021, the woman is in Niger waiting for the UN to follow up on the file.

September 2021 BERTHE arrives in Italy via a Caritas humanitarian corridor.