A heavily-pregnant woman who was rescued from sea in a dramatic airlift from a migrant ship has given birth to a baby boy – named Goodluck – and says she just wants a safe place for her family after fleeing abuse in Libya.

An Armed Forces of Malta helicopter evacuated 23-year-old Nigerian, Gift, from the Ocean Viking migrant rescue ship in a videoed emergency operation on Wednesday night.

She was taken to Mater Dei Hospital, where she gave birth to her son a day later.

Speaking to Times of Malta from her hospital bed, Gift and her husband, Gabriel, 27, described how they left Nigeria for a better life in Libya, but say they were victims of human trafficking and abuse.

They say they felt they had no option but to escape on a small rubber dinghy packed with some 50 people, even though Gift was due to give birth.

“Libya was not a good place for my baby,” she said, as her husband translated.

“I did not want to give birth there, so I prayed to God and trusted in him. I just want a safe place and a comfortable home for our family.”

Gabriel added: “When we found out she was pregnant she was angry as she didn’t want to get pregnant in those hard conditions. I said, ‘God knows why it happened that way. We are keeping the baby’.”

Goodluck was born at Mater Dei Hospital on Thursday at about 2.30pm – the day after his parents were evacuated to Malta from the NGO migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking, operated by SOS Mediterranee, because Gift developed complications.

They separated me and my woman. They beat me and told me to pay the money

Aboard there were a total of 82 migrants. Some, including 12 children, were rescued off the Libyan coast on Sunday, while 34 were transferred to the ship from the sailboat Josefa in a heavy storm on Monday night, some 60 nautical miles off the Libyan coast.

Gabriel said they left Nigeria two years and four months ago.

“I grew up with stress and famine and learned my tiling work, which is what I did in Nigeria. The man I was working for told me about an opportunity where I could be a tiler and encouraged me to go to Libya. I trusted him and decided to leave for Libya with my woman,” he said.

“What he told us about Libya was not what we saw. When we got there, we went to a place where there were a lot of people locked all together, beaten every day. They separated me and my woman. They beat me and told me to pay the money.

“I didn’t know what they were talking about,” he said.

Gabriel and his wife Gift with Goodluck. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Gabriel said they were then sold to their captors and had to pay them 4,000 dinars (€2,500) for their freedom. He claims he worked for them while they kept Gift hostage for five months.

He said the couple spent the next two years moving from one part of Libya to another. Eventually they met a man who gave them a place to stay and promised them a ticket out of Libya – if Gabriel worked for him.

“In these conditions I had no option. I didn’t know anyone there. I had to start working for him,” he says.

A few days ago, they were taken to the shore.

“We were hearing the sound of the waves but could not see the sea... it was dark. The man put everyone in the rubber boat and said we should go… we were about 50 people in the small boat.

“Everyone was pressing against each other and she was pregnant and in pain. But there was nothing I could do because we were at sea,” he said.

A few hours after they left, they were picked up by the rescue boat Ocean Viking where they spent three days before they were evacuated to Malta by the Armed Forces.

The couple said that since they arrived here several voluntary organisations and hospital staff have donated clothes, nappies and also a pushchair.

They said they do not know what the future holds, but hope that they will be starting a new, happier, chapter with Goodluck.