TheCable

A Nigerian couple saved off the Mediterranean sea has safely arrived Italy as it further searches for greener pastures.

The couple, who simply identified themselves as Samuel and Christina, had lived in Libya for about three years before getting on the boat to Italy.

According of BBC, Christina had set up a beauty salon in the capital, Tripoli, serving both Libyans and migrants, but the increasing chaos led them to try and find somewhere else to go.

These days in Libya “if you’re black you’re treated like an animal,” the couple told BBC.

On Wednesday, a migrant boat off Libyan coast sank in the Mediterranean, prompting Doctors without borders (Médecins Sans Frontières)  to a quick rescue  mission.

Italian authorities said on Friday that more than 200 people were feared dead after a migrant boat sank off Libya, leading to the arrest of  five men who were reported as traffickers in charge of the boat.

In May, 2015, Sandra Dike, a heavily pregnant 20-year-old Nigerian woman who was rescued in the same condition as  Samuel and Christina recounted her experience and how she fled Nigeria for the fear of Boko Haram.

The newly-arrived couple were handed the stickers with numbers on them as soon as they arrived, with the migrants getting sorted onto buses and taken to reception centres according the numbers allotted.

In 2014, a record 170,000 people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East made the perilous crossing to Italy, while thousands died making the journey.

From April to August 5, 2015, Mediterranean deaths were estimated at about 1,200.