“What we are seeing at the moment in terms of the numbers and scale of the criminal trade in Nigerian women is unprecedented,” says Simona Moscarelli, an anti-trafficking expert at the IOM. “Before, the women were exploited but there was a chance that they could pay off their debts and be free. Now these girls really are slaves and subject to terrible violence. The age of the women is getting younger, to the extent that a large percentage of those arriving now are classed as unaccompanied minors when they come off the boats.”
Loveth, a 21-year-old from Lagos, was only 17 when she left Nigeria. After being offered a job as a babysitter in Italy, she was instead forced to work in a brothel in Libya for three years.
“Before I went I was made to swear to the gods [in a juju ceremony] and they said if I didn’t pay back the money I wouldn’t be able to have babies and my life would be useless. Before they took me to Libya they used two boys to break my virginity and then they took me to Libya to a house and sent many men to sleep with me. They didn’t pay me, they just used me.”
After being sold to another madam, Loveth refused to work and was beaten and had boiling water thrown on her legs. Eventually she was put on a boat to Italy with 95 other people.
“When I arrived in Italy I was very sick so they took me to the hospital and there I found out I was pregnant,” she says. “That is when I knew the juju was a lie. After that I never worked as a prostitute again and PIAM has helped me get my life back.”
Since PIAM was founded, Princess and Mossino have helped more than 200 women leave their traffickers in Asti and gain access to legal support, employment and counselling. They have also created refuges and communities for those kept isolated by their traffickers and who are hundreds of miles from home. Princess arranges for the women to live and work together.
“The trauma these women have gone through is very, very heavy,” Princess says. “They need a family and a mother as well as the other things we can give them. At the weekends Princess helps organise parties and dances with the women. These traffickers take away everything from you, everything that makes you human. I want to give that back to these women and say to them, let us not rest until we have brought them all to justice.”
Page 6 of 8
Discussion about this post