BENTON HARBOR, Mich. -- A Benton Harbor family, pleading with officials in Ghana after they say their loved one was jailed while doing a good deed.
FOX 17 spoke to Roy Barry's family Saturday. They say, Barry left for Ghana nearly two weeks ago to meet up with his god daughter and bring her back to Michigan. But just one day after he arrived overseas, family says he was arrested on charges of human trafficking.
“All I want to do is let a little girl see what the United States looks like but America didn't like that they accused me of trafficking,” Roy said on a video posted on Facebook.
Family tells FOX 17 Roy is now stuck in the country Ghana, pleading to come home to his family, and extremely ill wife.
"I don't want to die without my husband here with me, he makes all the decisions in our life, he's our backbone," said Roy's wife, Kimberly.
Kimberly says Roy isn't just a family man, he's a lover of Christ.
"He's a God fearing man, he knows he has God by his side," Kimberly said.
It's that faith, Kimberly says, that's getting both her, and her husband, through this nightmare.
"The jail cell was very dark, you have no bed. I slept on the floor, curled up in the corner, they don't feed you," Roy said in a phone interview Saturday.
Just one day after Roy arrived in Ghana to pick up his god daughter, he was thrown in jail for two days, stripped of his visa, wallet, passport and phone.
Kimberly tells FOX 17 the U.S Embassy in Ghana hasn't helped at all.
"To just know he's in a foreign country and they're talking about 5-7 years and he's so innocent, he never done anything to anybody, it tears me up," Kimberly said.
"I just try to be strong, I know that he would tell me if he was here to be strong, so I just try and hold myself together for him,"said Shanika Mister, Roy's daughter.
This family, sticking together, hoping that someone or something will get Roy home safe.
"I just pray to God, the U.S or something can help him get out of this situation that he's in because he's innocent and if you met him today you would just love him," Kimberly said.
Family says Roy is currently out of jail on bond staying with his god daughter's family, but is due back in court October 7th.
In the meantime, Roy's family continues to reach out to state officials in an effort to get Roy home safe.
