Juumia and her four children were among a group of Nigerians referred to IOM by their embassy in Khartoum for assisted return. She and the children were living in Dawra, Nigeria, selling oil and wheat. This did not provide enough of an income for Juumia to keep her children fed. Lured with the promise that she would be able to work in Sudan and earn enough money to help her family perform Hajj in Saudi Arabia and return to Nigeria, Juumia and her family paid 3,500SDG (approximately 575 USD) to be smuggled from Nigeria to Sudan. They traveled overland with a group of around twenty other people, crossing Cameroon and Chad. Over the course of the two-month long journey, they were forced to work in farms in order to feed themselves.

Jummia reached Sudan with nothing, and the promised link to a job and life in Saudi Arabia never materialized. Missing her home and her family, she found herself begging in the street to feed her four children. After 9 months hand to mouth survival, Juumia was referred for assistance in returning back to Nigeria.

Jummia is planning to start a small business in Dawra using her reintegration assistance as well as enroll her children in school. Stories of Migrants: