Trafficked to Turin : the Nigerian women forced to work as prostitutes in Italy

Source : The Guardian

Auteur : Annie Kelly

« It’s just after 9pm when the first Nigerian women start to appear on the streets of Asti, a small city near Turin in northern Italy. Some stand in groups of two or three, flagging down passing cars or checking their phones. Many are alone – solitary figures backlit by the stream of headlights moving into the city. Princess Inyang Okokon slows down her car as she spots two girls standing on a corner. Even with heavy makeup they look no older than 15 or 16. “So many new faces,” she says, shaking her head as she pulls her car to the side of the road and gets out to speak to them.

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“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.”

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