Four Nigerians rescued after 14 days living at ship's wheel

Four Nigerians hid in a cramped space on the wheel of a transatlantic ship. They ran out of food and water after 10 days at sea, before being rescued by Brazilian federal police in the port of Vitoria.

Their death-defying journey across 5,600km of ocean shows the risks some migrants are willing to take in pursuit of a better life.

Four Nigerians Survive Fever After 14 Days On Board Train Picture 1 — Police provide drinking water to migrants. Photo: Reuters

“It was a terrible experience for me,” Thankgod Opemipo Matthew Yeye, 38, one of the four Nigerians, said in an interview at a church in Sao Paulo. “It was not easy being on the ship. I was shaking and very scared.”

Their relief at being rescued quickly gave way to surprise.

The four men said they had hoped to reach Europe and were shocked to learn they had arrived in Brazil. Two of the men were sent back to Nigeria at their request, while Yeye and Roman Ebimene Friday, 35, from Bayelsa state, have applied for asylum in Brazil.

Both men said economic hardship, political instability and crime had left them with no choice but to leave their native Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, which is notorious for its longstanding problems with violence and poverty.

Yeye, a pastor from Lagos state, said his palm oil and peanut farms were destroyed by floods this year, leaving him and his family homeless. He hopes to rebuild with his family in Brazil.

Roman Ebimene Friday said his journey to Brazil began on June 27, when a fisherman friend put him on the stern of the Liberian-flagged Ken Wave, docked in Lagos, and left him at the helm.

He was surprised to find three men already there, waiting for the ship to depart. Friday said he was scared. He had never met his new shipmates before and feared they might throw him overboard at any moment.

As the ship moved, Friday said the four men tried their best to stay unnoticed by the ship's crew. "Maybe if they caught you, they would throw you into the water," he said. "So we told ourselves never to make any noise."

To avoid falling into the water, Friday said the men had strung 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.” Given the cramped conditions and the noise of the engines, sleep was a luxury and a danger. “I’m glad we were rescued,” he said.

Father Paolo Parise, a priest at the Sao Paulo shelter, said he had encountered other cases of stowaways, but never one as dangerous as this.

Mai Anh (according to Reuters)

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