Stevilina is a Ghanaian who moved to Accra at the age of 15. Life was tough, but she eventually got to Site 20 in Tema in search of a place to stay. A lady took her to Timber Market, and while there, she met a security guard who happened to be her mother’s husband’s cousin. He helped her get a restaurant job that paid GHS 300.
In an interview with DJ Nyaami on SVTV Africa’s Daily Hustle Worldwide Show, Stevilina, a Ghanaian, shared her harrowing journey abroad.
She moved to Accra at age 15, struggling to survive until she reached Site 20 in Tema in search of a place to stay. A lady took her to Timber Market, where she met a security guard who happened to be her mother’s husband’s cousin. He helped her get a restaurant job that paid GHS 300.
She used part of her earnings to support the girl she was living with, as that girl had provided her a place to stay. Later, she met a man on Facebook who spoke to her about traveling abroad. In 2019, they processed her passport, and she later worked at CoM9 before moving to East Legon to work at America House. From there, she managed to save and pay an agent GHS 6,000 for a travel arrangement.
In 2023, she decided to travel. Her passport was still with the agent, who then offered her another job opportunity abroad. She was told to lie that she was going to Damascus. Upon arrival, she was sent to work for a family. They claimed they had paid for her passport, even though she had covered the cost herself.
Her work conditions were harsh. She was tasked with washing clothes and faced physical abuse from the man of the house, who would beat her over minor issues like finishing water. She later fell from the building and fractured her leg. She told them her mother was sick and requested her wages, but in seven months, she was only paid $250 monthly. Her phone was seized for two weeks, and she was threatened with having her tongue cut out.
One day, the man of the house approached her, expressing that he liked her and wanted a relationship. She confided in the family’s stepson, a musician, who spoke English and took pity on her. However, when she revealed that the man had approached her the previous night, threats escalated, and she was told she would be killed if she tried to escape.
They kept her under guard and later detained her underground, with the man claiming he had “bought” her. The musician intervened and got her handcuffs removed. Eventually, she was moved to a small room where she met other Syrian and foreign girls. She gave a statement, leading to the arrest of her office boss, but she went two weeks without bathing and collapsed after her release.
Her phone was seized for nine months after they learned she had recorded someone who tried to force himself on her. When she got to immigration, they told her she would be transferred in two days, but instead, she ended up in a detention center where she met a fellow Ghanaian woman she had traveled with.
She spent eight months in detention until soldiers attacked the facility, rescuing them amid gunfire and seeing human remains. She now needs a travel certificate to return home, but immigration demands money she doesn’t have. With no Ghana embassy there, she remains stranded.
Stevilina says the detention center experience has damaged her eyesight, and she has seen other detainees beaten. At 21, she had been renting and supporting her mother in Ghana. When the agent promised $300 a month, she thought traveling was the right move. A friend in the UK occasionally sends her $50, and an organization has offered to buy their tickets, but they still need money for immigration to process their travel documents.
Before leaving Ghana, she was a driver making GHS 200 a day, but when the car owner took back the vehicle, she had no steady income. She regrets leaving, saying Ghana would have been better for her, but at the time, she felt she had no choice because she didn’t own a car.
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