SAO PAULO, Aug 1 (Reuters) - On their tenth day at sea, the four Nigerian stowaways crossing the Atlantic in a tiny space above the rudder of a cargo ship ran out of food and drink.

They survived another four days, according to their account, by drinking the sea water crashing just meters below them, before being rescued by Brazilian federal police in the southeastern port of Vitoria.

Their remarkable, death-defying journey across some 5,600 kilometers (3,500 miles) of ocean underlines the risks some migrants are prepared to take for a shot at a better life.

It was a terrible experience for me," said 38-year-old Thankgod Opemipo Matthew Yeye, one of the four Nigerians, in an interview at a Sao Paulo church shelter. "On board it is not easy. I was shaking, so scared. But I'm here."

Their relief at being rescued soon gave way to surprise.

The four men said they had hoped to reach Europe and were shocked to learn they had in fact landed on the other side of the Atlantic, in Brazil. Two of the men have since been returned to Nigeria upon their request, while Yeye and Roman Ebimene Friday, a 35-year-old from Bayelsa state, have applied for asylum in Brazil.

"I pray the government of Brazil will have pity on me," said Friday, who had already attempted to flee Nigeria by ship once before but was arrested by authorities there.

Both men said economic hardship, political instability and crime had left them with little option but to abandon their native Nigeria. Africa's most populous country has longstanding issues of violence and poverty, and kidnappings are endemic.

Yeye, a pentecostal minister from Lagos state, said his peanut and palm oil farm was destroyed by floods this year, leaving him and his family homeless. He hopes they can now join him in Brazil.

Friday said his journey to Brazil began on June 27, when a fisherman friend rowed him up to the stern of the Liberian-flagged Ken Wave, docked in Lagos, and left him by the rudder. To his surprise, he found three men already there, waiting for the ship to depart. Friday said he was terrified. He had never met his new shipmates and feared they could toss him into the sea at any moment.

Once the ship was moving, Friday said the four men made every effort not to be discovered by the ship's crew, who they also worried might offer them a watery grave.

"Maybe if they catch you they will throw you in the water," he said. "So we taught ourselves never to make a noise."

Spending two weeks within spitting distance of the Atlantic Ocean was perilous.

To prevent themselves from falling into the water, Friday said the men rigged up a net around the rudder and tied themselves to it with a rope. When he looked down, he said he could see "big fish like whales and sharks." Due to the cramped conditions and the noise of the engine, sleep was rare and risky. "I was very happy when we got rescued," he said.

Father Paolo Parise, a priest at the Sao Paulo shelter, said he had come across other cases of stowaways, but never one so dangerous. Their journey paid testament to lengths people will go in search of a new start, he said. "People do unimaginable and deeply dangerous things."


https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/four-nigerians-rescued-brazil-survived-14-days-ships-rudder-2023-08-01/

Thank God they survived.

Thank God for their survival. Short of words here.

Omor things o. They were more concerned about not landing in Europe 😂😂

May god see us through in all our endeavors

Those guys will not return to Nigeria,because Brazil is very much lenient to immigrants.

They are lucky. Brazil is heaven on earth compared to any place in Africa

ibechris:
Those guys will not return to Nigeria,because Brazil is very much lenient to immigrants.

2 of them have voluntarily returned to Nigeria

tensazangetsu20:
They are lucky. Brazil is heaven on earth compared to any place in Africa

SMH


Brazil is just like nigeria bruh but without the hardship instead more crimes


There's no heaven in Brazil except you're rich

They stared at death for 14 days!

Purvan:



SMH


Brazil is just like nigeria bruh but without the hardship instead more crimes


There's no heaven in Brazil except you're rich

Purvan:



SMH


Brazil is just like nigeria bruh but without the hardship instead more crimes


There's no heaven in Brazil except you're rich

Have you been to Brazil?

tensazangetsu20:


Have you been to Brazil?

Yea in my dreams :-)

Purvan:


Yea in my dreams :-)

Then don't talk about wetin you no sabi.

Imagine all that stress for racist and violent Brazil.

They should consider themselves lucky to have been rescued in Brazil.

Safer than climbing into the landing gear well of an Airliner lol.

Purvan:


SMH

Brazil is just like nigeria bruh but without the hardship instead more crimes

There's no heaven in Brazil except you're rich

So mention the country in Africa that is better off than Brazil?

You people just type nonsense anyhow.

Gerrard59:


So mention the country in Africa that is better off than Brazil?

You people just type nonsense anyhow.

SMH

Gabon

Kenya

Morocco


The only good thing in Brazil is booze, food and women

I've lived in Sao Paulo and escaped death twice by unknown gunmen

See risk

Purvan:


SMH

Gabon

Kenya

Morocco


The only good thing in Brazil is booze, food and women

I've lived in Sao Paulo and escaped death twice by unknown gunmen

I do agree that Brazil is unsafe due to many criminals. But Kenya is not better off and certainly not Gabon. That is like saying Bonny Island is better off than Edo state. Apples to oranges. Even at that, Gabon is notoriously poor. I am willing to bet Bonny residents have higher living standards than Gabonese. Morocco is not an "African" country. Africa here means black Africa.

No wonder the whites think we are half human nd half animal

Lucky people

Some people are just too desperate, they behave as if they had a spare life kept elsewhere to replace the one they are toying with. Getting rich in life is not just about traveling abroad and going overseas should not be a do or die affair.

Even in New York, Toronto and London, we have many who are begging for shelter and survival. If at all you want to japa, it shouldn't be at the detriment of your precious life.

The two guys that returned are a clear example of what I ordered vs what I got

Buhari Ronu, Yoruba Ronu, Tinubu Ronu APC Ronu

Please I want to ask. The oil Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar... etc has, is the same oil we have here in Nigeria?

Cos with the kind of oil and other mineral resources we have in this country, it's almost impossible to believe that Nigeria has one of the lowest GDP per capita in the world. It's citizens are languishing in abject poverty.

Thankgod Opemipo Matthew Yeye

Ronu wants to run away, lol, Opemimo, you are going nowhere. You're yet to teach us that lesson you promised we'd learn

Have read something similar like this before,so this thing Na true.May God help us in this in this trying period.Hope the remaining two grant asylum in Brazil.