A young refugee in Italy from Nigerian called Joy, who currently lives in Turin, is telling her story in an aim to combat discrimination as part of a project called ‘Everyone Can Make a Difference #with refugees’.
Her story is to be launched on the music platform Spotify in collaboration with the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.
Discrimination against skin colour
The young refugee in Italy narrated how she was born in Nigerian in the city of Benin in a community that does not sit well with diversity to the point of despising it. If you are born different. Being born with albinism she referred to herself as ‘white-black’.
In Nigeria, people born with albinism are discriminated against and killed for various reasons despite the fact the condition is not contagious not makes her act or seem different from anyone else.
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Joy added that she was kidnapped in her country and that she had no intention of leaving it soon but was forced to.
Due to superstition she was taken from her home in Nigeria, but then I managed to escape from the kidnappers and ended up with human traffickers, men who sell women.
“In Nigeria, there are people who believe that sacrificing a person with albinism can bring wealth. There has always been this discrimination against people with albinism; they are considered people who bring bad luck. I think people don’t understand how albinism works and what it is, so they exclude and discriminate,” she said.
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How did she get to Italy?
The people who took her took her to Libya and again sold her, then ended up letting her go with several other people.
Joy stayed in the country for a while before being transferred to Trento where she received accommodation and requested asylum.
She hopes to finish her education and continue in her passion for music while in Italy. She is now free of fear from superstitions.
Source: Spotify.