She wanted justice. Research shows that about 10,000 Nigerian prostitutes in Italy are subjected to human trafficking. The Data, the Stories, the Social Services. They beat her badly and left a message for Susan: “Go back to your madam.” The threat had the opposite effect. Criminal charges are usually dropped, or reduced to exploitation of prostitution, which is a misdemeanour. Italian and Nigerian gangs: A deadly alliance An uneasy partnership between Italian and Nigerian gangs has led to a boom in human trafficking and the drugs trade. From my afternoon at the secret shelter, it was clear the women there felt safe and happy - recovering well from their trauma. Sex trafficking gangs in Italy left thousands of Nigerian sex trafficking survivors destitute of basic needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Women of Benin City runs a drop-in centre, offering advice and, importantly, emotional support, which sets the group apart. At the shelter, Ms Egbon says she wants to empower the women by giving them access to education - Italian classes and training that may help them get jobs. Female traffickers could be in detention together with their victims. On Wednesdays, De Masi and her team Be Free usually set up in Ponte Galeria’s library, a dark room with few books and many mosquitos. Complex cases, such as ones involving human trafficking, tend to be passed over by judges, Pietroiusti said with a sigh, as they require more time and work to evaluate. But this time, they were in luck. Re: Nigerian Victim Of Sex Trafficking In Italy Tells Her Shocking Story by Nobody: 9:44pm On Jun 04, 2017 Afonjashapmouth : we don tire for dem story abeg make dem network muritala The United Nations migration agency estimates that 80 percent of Nigerian women arriving in Italy - more than 11,000 in 2016 - are potential victims of sex trafficking. For Ms Egbon, who has become part-aunty, part-councillor, part-sister to the women, the shelter is a dream come true. Susan laughed, pleased with the privacy and comfort. “She had provided a copy of her notebook, photos, names and personal information about her traffickers,” De Masi said. To make themselves heard above the panicked and bewildered voices, De Masi and other aid workers climbed on to a table and shouted. As their train was leaving, they called Susan to tell her that Ivie had been sentenced to 16 years and eight months. But the women around her were not laughing. Because of their complexity, in Italy human trafficking investigations are managed by local anti-mafia directorates – special prosecutors’ units created in the early 90s to coordinate investigations into organised crime in Italy. To protect them from crossing paths with their traffickers, Pietroiusti invited them to wait in her office. What happens to your body in extreme heat? “I couldn’t continue like that. Susan’s case involved thousands of pages of phone records and transcribed conversations. Susan’s information was detailed, reliable and well documented. Joy Ezekiel was trafficked to Italy and forced to work as a prostitute. Hillary’s father, who lived in Nigeria, had been working closely with Ivie, and had recruited his own daughter, as well as other girls. “You deserve the princess room,” De Masi told her, giving her the biggest room in the apartment, with a queen-size bed and a television. The majority of sex trafficking victims are from Nigeria, although more recently their numbers have decreased; however, the government and civil society maintain that Nigerian women and unaccompanied minors remain extremely vulnerable to trafficking because of the continued operation of several organized Nigerian trafficking networks. In March 2016, about a month after Susan fled to Rome, Ivie sent men to her mother’s house in Nigeria. By Editor on 30/06/2018. A pre-trial hearing was set for July 2019, and Susan took the train to Florence. Criminalisation of migration became the priority.”. The number of investigations into trafficking to Italy dropped steeply from 2014 onwards, just as there was a spike in arrivals of Nigerian women and girls without visas. The hardest thing to bear was that her sacrifice was not even helping her family in Nigeria. The country is used as a hub by the Nigerian mafia for the trafficking of cocaine from South America, heroin from Asia and women from Africa. Female traffickers could be in detention together with their victims. She would like to go back to school, but more than anything she wants to be able to work and help her family back home. It is a typical Sicilian village house with a large kitchen, a terrace with views out on to the verdant hills. They sat braiding each other's hair as they listened to Ms Egbon - and looking forward to the dinner to be made from goat's meat I had brought on special request from Palermo. Photograph: Reuters, Escape: the woman who brought her trafficker to justice, usan had been on Italian soil for exactly three days when, on 23 July 2015, she was taken with dozens of other new arrivals to a noisy, overcrowded detention centre in Rome, and told she would shortly be deported back to. “Nobody,” Susan replied firmly. Read about our approach to external linking. Wiretaps and surveillance revealed that Ivie was part of an international network. But after Silvio Berlusconi’s rightwing government issued new legislation in 2009 to clamp down on undocumented migrants, the police attitude towards sex-trafficking victims started to change. Seeing De Masi and Quinto waiting for her at the station was a relief. “In the end, many cases go to trial for minor crimes with evidence that is easier to get,” Quinto explained. But things did not get easier for her. The first few minutes of the exchange are crucial. The trafficker called them “the little ones”, Pietroiusti said. She allows the women to stay in the shelter for one year so that they can recover from their traumatic experiences and prepare for their futures. If she had a fever, or had her period, she had to work. The Italian authorities have discovered an organization of Nigerian origins involved in the trafficking of minors for prostitution that made use of contacts in Libya and Italy to arrange the trips. At the time, she wasn’t sure she would be able to do anything with them, but she wanted evidence of what she was being forced to endure. Pietroiusti also has a rule: she only asks questions when it is strictly necessary. The traffickers prey on the women's spiritual beliefs so they become too afraid to speak up, fearing if they do so harm will come to them or loved ones back home. Nigerian women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking within Nigeria and throughout Europe, including in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Russia; in 2017, an international organization estimated 80 percent of all female Nigerian migrants in Italy are or will become sex trafficking victims. She kept records of phone numbers and notes of what happened to her. (Foreign Correspondent: Louie Eroglu) Because of their complexity, in Italy human trafficking investigations are managed by local anti-mafia directorates – special prosecutors’ units created in the early 90s to coordinate investigations into organised crime in Italy. The lack of interpreters from west Africa who can translate intercepted phone calls was one obstacle. 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