Revealed: Gangs abandoned trafficked Nigerian women without food or budget amid coronavirus pandemic
Thousands of Nigerian women forced into prostitution have been left to starve to death through sex traffickers during Italy’s Covid-19 pandemic, The Guardian may reveal.
According to the UN’s International Bureau for Migration (IOM), more than 80% of the tens of thousands of Nigerian women who have arrived in Italy from Lithrougha in recent years have been victims of highly organized sex trafficking gangs. prostitution to pay debts of up to € 40,000 (£ 36,000) and controlled through violence and concern for black magic rituals “juju” that they will have to go through before their trip to Europe.
According to testimonies from volunteers, social staff and NGOs, during the Italian government’s prolonged and strict three-month COVID-19 lockdown, trafficking gangs abandoned women and their children, who were unable to leave their homes and jobs, and were left without food and cash. to pay the rent. Given their irregular situation, they did not have access to cash assistance or unemployment benefits.
“Sex traffickers had no interest in feeding or helping Nigerian women during the pandemic,” says Alberto Mossino, co-founder of Piam Onlus with his wife, Princess Okokon, a former victim of sex trafficking. traffickers in Asti, in the northwestern region of Piedmont. “In the eyes of sex traffickers, these women are subhuman, exploited to enrich their pimps, who treat them like ATMs. And when the ATM runs out of cash, they throw it away and look for someone else.
Desperate and forced to stay at home without food or money, many turned to voluntary associations for a packet of rice or a loaf of bread.
“They called us with desperation and panic,” says Sister Valeria Gandini, a Comboni missionary who has been helping Nigerian victims of sex trafficking in Sicily for more than a decade. “Many were left alone at home with young people and without food. “From the beginning of the confinement, we delivered groceries to them at the door of their house, since face-to-face meetings were not allowed. When the government started easing restrictions, they started coming to our church looking for food. “
In Africa, where thousands of women of various nationalities have been forced into the sex industry, the Dedalus cooperative launched a crowdfunding initiative in March to provide aid and food parcels to Nigerian women who were victims of sex trafficking during the pandemic.
“The situations they were forced to live in, especially when it came to their health, were destabilizing,” says Jean d’Hainaut, coordinator of the Dedalus cooperative, which helps women seeking to free themselves from their pimps. “They were left alone and penniless by their exploiters, and some of their owners even threw them out on the street. “
In recent months, some experts have pointed out that the modus operandi of Italian sex trafficking gangs has changed. Historically, Nigerian women forced into prostitution in Italy lived under the tight control of mothers, older women who had been sex workers themselves and who controlled women’s lives. prostitution. Now, women’s debt bondage is controlled remotely.
“Thanks to the massive profits [made through this illegal industry on women] in recent years, but also to escape arrest, some of those mothers have moved to other parts of Europe, such as France and Germany. Many of those Nigerian women now have to handle their debts alone, even though there is someone around them to control them and guarantee that they will be physically punished if they do not work,” says Princess Okokon, who heads Piam Onlus’ anti-trafficking services.
“Before the lockdown, it allowed women under the control of those gangs more freedom, but under lockdown it was catastrophic because women found themselves isolated and with no one willing to help them. “
During the shutdown, anti-trafficking organizations said more women came forward to seek help to drop off their traffickers. However, it had great potential mental and physical repercussions. occasionally using women’s blood, hair and clothing, tying the woman to her trafficker and the debts incurred. Those who are forced to adopt such ceremonies are led to perceive the terrible consequences for the woman and her circle of relatives if she escapes.
“This juju would possibly seem small or meaningless to other people here in Europe, but to women, those curses are genuine and terrifying,” says Okokon, who was brought from Nigeria to Italy in 1998. more powerful than any violence that can be done to them. It is transparent that such decisions are the result of excessive misery and not an intellectual epiphany related to their state of oppression and this has very worrying consequences for their intellectual health.