Trafficked Nigerian Girls Forced Into Prostitution in Belgium

nsnbc : Belgian police investigators busted a human trafficking ring that specialized in trafficking young Nigerian women and girls to Belgium where they were forced into prostitution.

Nigerian sex worker_Italy_TraffickingA Belgian police official, known to nsnbc but unnamed here, told nsnbc that police has gotten help from social services as well as from local prostitutes to bust the trafficking and prostitution ring.

The Nigerian women and girls paid between 30,000 – 40,000 euros for being trafficked from Nigeria to Belgium. Almost all who are known arrived in Belgium with a debt of 30,000 – 40,000 euros to the group.

That is, money that they had to work off by working as prostitutes in literal debt slavery. Some of the girls who were forced into sex work were as young as 14 – 15.

Many of the girls were trafficked over land via Libya and by boat across the Mediterranean. Both legs of the journey were dangerous and it is unknown how many of the girls perished during their “journey”. Many of the women and girls stated that they had repeatedly been raped en route. Most of the girls were trafficked across the Mediterranean to Italy. The number of trafficked sex workers in Italy is currently estimated to exceed 10,000.

Belgian investigators stress that far from all of the girls ended up in Belgium. Others have been forced into prostitution in Italy, France and other EU member States. The trafficking ring has been operating for several years before Belgian authorities intervened on Tuesday. The Belgian police official who spoke with nsnbc stressed the importance of local sex workers’ cooperation when they discover that fellow sex workers have been trafficked, had their passport taken away, or are kept in debt slavery.

Emma Christopher, an expert on slavery and human trafficking, stressed that tens of thousands of people are bought and sold in Nigeria every year. The majority of them are children. Christopher is referring to the International Labour Organization which estimated that in 2003, as many as six million Nigerian children had been trafficked at some time in their lives.

CH/L – nsnbc 11.06.2016

Related article:

How Colonialism Benefits from Boko Haram’s Mass Kidnapping of Girls

Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/06/11/trafficked-nigerian-girls-forced-into-prostitution-in-belgium/

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