March 03, 2021
These trappings of wealth are all funded by grateful clients
Combined with crippling debt and threats of violence, it helps perpetuate a
cycle of exploitation in which many victims then become perpetrators, returning
to Nigeria as "madams" to recruit more girls, police and rights groups say. Edo,
Nigeria: Sitting on the floor surrounded by vials, animal bones and sheets
stained crimson with blood, spiritual doctor Olor Elemian described how he
scares girls into blind obedience with potions and spells known as
"juju".It&China
STEEL/STEEL SEALED TYPE BLIND RIVETS Suppliers039;s then on # to Europe via
well-trod smuggling routes through Niger and Libya.One neighborhood stands
out."It's not how hard a person works that determines how much money she will
make," he said, showing off his new mobile phone and modern bungalow, which
stands out amid his neighbors' mud huts."I see pictures on my phone of people
drowning in the sea," she said.
But now, even children know that when you get
there, it is prostitution. "People see us as a problem, as stopping them from
reaching El Dorado. end-of.Girls are then taken to a spiritual priest, who
conducts the "juju" rituals designed to bind them to their traffickers. Most
have little clue of the nightmare to follow."Edo women started going to Italy to
buy gold and beads in the early 1980s and saw a thriving market in
prostitution," said Kokunre Eghafona, a professor of sociology and anthropology
at the University of Benin and a consultant researcher for the International
Organization for Migration (IOM).In Edo state - a southern Nigerian hub for
human trafficking - many girls begin their journey into prostitution
willingly."These women, known as "madams" - who make up around half of Nigeria's
traffickers, UNDOC says - are mostly former victims-turned-brokers who prey on
others to escape prostitution.
These trappings of wealth are all funded by
grateful clients from Italy, he said.Sometimes she is tempted to abandon her
dream.For Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency, NAPTIP, efforts to combat the
traffickers are being thwarted not only by the criminals themselves, but also by
members of the public.Public EnemiesAt Uromi market, several stalls display
secondhand winter jackets and mittens, which one trader, Linus, described as a
thriving market due to the number of people heading to Europe.More than 12,000
Nigerian women and girls have reached Italy by sea over the past two years - a
six-fold increase over the previous two-year period - with around four in five
of them trafficked into sex work, according to data from the IOM. "It is
risky"."Something in her head will keep telling her: 'Go and pay!'"Juju is a
potent ingredient in a cocktail of coercion that keeps thousands of Nigerian
women and girls in sex slavery in Europe, mostly in Italy, after making the
treacherous journey across North Africa and the Mediterranean in search of
better lives."They came back and started taking family and friends."I want to go
to Italy because I want to make money," she said."I can make sure she never
sleeps well or has peace of mind until she pays what she owes," said the
39-year-old spiritual priest known in his neighborhood as "Doctor". Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), more than nine in 10 Nigerian women smuggled to Europe
come from Edo, a predominantly Christian state with a population of 3
million.Pimps, madams, smugglers and even parents bring girls to his shrine in
Amedokhian village near the southern Nigerian city of Uromi, where they drink
concoctions brewed with pieces of their own fingernails, pubic hair, underwear
or drops of blood. "They ask: 'What kind of hustle ' I tell them. "If it is
prostitution, I'll do it.Traffickers in Nigeria are exploiting Europe's
migration crisis, moving girls to lawless Libya, before crossing the
Mediterranean to Italy, anti-slavery activists say. She was finally arrested and
deported back to Nigeria.N.NAPTIP officials have been attacked by mobs in Edo
while informing people of the dangers of trafficking, and angry relatives often
snatch their daughters away from training or rehabilitation centers and threaten
the staff, Orakwe added.Before arranging their passage through contacts in
Libya, traffickers like "Mama Anna" make the girls sign a contract to finance
their move - leaving them with debts that can spiral to tens of thousands of
dollars and take years to pay off.Speaking from her home in the city of Warri
with her one-year-old son crying in the background, madam "Mama Anna" said that
with so many girls looking for traffickers to take them to Italy, she no longer
needed to deceive or trick them into going.
Such rites instil fear in victims,
who believe that they or their relatives may fall ill or die if they disobey
their traffickers, go to the police or fail to pay off their debts."After
escaping her traffickers, Anita spent days on the streets.In Edo state - a
southern Nigerian hub for human trafficking - many girls begin their journey
into prostitution willingly."Everybody believes that the streets of Europe are
paved with gold," said Arinze Orakwe, an official at NAPTIP."In the past, girls
like Faith would have been tricked into prostitution, promised jobs like
hairdressing or supermarket before being forced to work for pimps."Before,
nobody knew - it was a secret thing," said 30-year-old Anita, who was sex
trafficked to Italy in 2011, after being deceived into thinking she was going to
work as a hairdresser. (Photo: YouTube Screengrab) In Edo state - a southern
Nigerian hub for human trafficking - many girls begin their journey into
prostitution willingly. Some refuse to go, others agree.Fearful that the juju
"spell" may be turned on them, many Nigerian parents become complicit, insisting
that their daughters obey their traffickers, testimony from Italian court
documents shows."Some ask me what they will do when they get there," said Mama
Anna, boasting of her reputation as a broker who sends interested girls to Italy
to work for her older sister, also a madam.Some even visit native doctors like
Elemian of their own accord, hoping juju will help them prosper while selling
sex in Italy.Many such traffickers believe they are being helpful rather than
doing harm, calling themselves sponsors rather than madams, a more positive
title, according to Eghafona. Its nickname is "Little London" and it is known
for sleek, modern houses behind imposing iron gates, many said to be funded from
the proceeds of prostitution.Managed by MadamsAccording to the U."One mother
asked me if I would prefer her daughter to have sex with a young boy in Edo and
get pregnant, when she can do the same thing in Europe and earn foreign
currency," he said.Human trafficking by Nigerian organized crime gangs is one of
the greatest challenges facing police forces across Europe, according to the
EU's law enforcement agency, Europol."Bonded By DebtFor an insight into what
drives young women to travel to Italy and sell sex, look no further than Uromi,
with its pothole-ridden roads and derelict buildings with wells in front yards –
evidence of the town's lack of running water."These people, they are enemies,
because this country is too rough now," said Igose, a mother-of-eight who relies
on money sent by her 22-year-old daughter in Italy to feed her family.While
Igose in Benin City, the capital of Edo state, fears for the future of her
family, in neighboring Uromi, Faith is still searching for a madam to arrange
her passage to Italy.Faith, a 23-year-old hairdresser, traveled more than 300 km
(almost 200 miles) to Uromi from her home in Akwa Ibom, dreaming of joining the
ranks of thousands of sex workers smuggled to Europe each year."I tell them they
will go and hustle," she said
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