Four Nigerian rescued after travelling 5,600km across Atlantic on ship’s rudder

Brazilian federal police rescued four Nigerian stowaways who survived four days stuck in a cramped area above a cargo ship’s rudder by drinking the seawater that crashed just metres below them while travelling across the Atlantic.

The four men covered about 5,600 kilometres (3,500 miles) of the ocean on a life-threatening voyage that also highlights the risks some migrants are willing to take in exchange for a chance 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 surprise at being saved quickly gave way to relief.

According to Reuters, the four men claimed they had wanted to travel to Europe and were astounded to discover they had really arrived in Brazil, on the other side of the Atlantic.

Since then, two of the men have returned to Nigeria while Yeye and Roman Ebimene Friday, a 35-year-old from Bayelsa state have requested refuge 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 abandoned Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, due to economic hardship, political instability, and crime, citing the country’s long-standing violence, poverty, and endemic kidnappings

Yeye, a Pentecostal minister from Lagos state, lost his peanut and palm oil farm to floods, leaving him and his family homeless. He hopes that his family can join him in Brazil.

Meanwhile, Friday set out for Brazil on June 27 and was rowed up to the stern of the Liberian-flagged Ken Wave in Lagos by a fisherman friend who left him by the rudder.

He was surprised to find three men waiting for the ship to depart and was terrified as he had never met those people before and feared they could toss him into the sea.

Read more: 11 dead as ship carrying over 80 migrants sinks near Libya 

When the ship started to move, the four guys, according to Friday, made every attempt to avoid being seen by the crew, who they also feared may provide them with 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.”

Two weeks in close proximity to the Atlantic Ocean was dangerous.

To avoid falling, men rigged a net around their rudder and tied themselves with rope. They saw “big fish like whales and sharks,” and sleep was rare due to cramped conditions and engine noise.

“I was very happy when we got rescued,” Friday said.

Father Paolo Parise, a priest at the Sao Paulo shelter, praised the dangerous case of stowaways and the lengths people go to for a new start. He attributed the journey to the unimaginable and deeply dangerous things people do.