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Nigerian prostitution rings flourish in Europe The large Casa de Campo park on the outskirts of the Spanish capital Madrid houses an amusement park and a cable car, but it is also known for another reason. A young Nigerian girl stands on the roadside, flashing her bare breasts to cars passing by. One of tens of thousands of Nigerian prostitutes working in Europe, Teresa does not speak any Spanish. Struggling to express herself in broken English, the girl claims to be 25 years old, but looks younger under her heavy make-up. Despite the "work" she has done at the Casa de Campo for eight months, Teresa has retained a sweet, almost innocent smile. Teresa comes from Benin City in southern Nigeria, a city plagued by poverty and high unemployment which has become one of Africa's main centres for prostitution rings smuggling women to Europe. It has been estimated that 10 000 women are taken to Spain, Italy, Britain and other European states annually from Africa's most populated country, with more than 100-million residents. "I did not know that I would be doing this after arriving in Europe," Teresa says. "Someone promised to find me a job. But once I was here, I was told this was the only way to survive." The "someone" whom Teresa does not name is likely to be a Nigerian madam -- probably a former prostitute herself -- running a prostitution ring from Nigeria, Spain or another European country. "I stand here from midday to 8pm," Teresa says. "The men pay me from 15 to 25 euros ($18 to $31). I can barely afford to eat." Asked whether she keeps her earnings, she dodges the question. Like most other African prostitutes in Spain, Teresa is likely to spend years reimbursing an unending debt to her madam or pimp for bringing her to the industrialised world. In the best case, she also manages to send a little money to her family back home. Some of the Nigerian girls leaving for Europe know they will have to "serve as companions for men", but they believe it will only last for a few months. The girls at the Casa de Campo had no idea they would have to spend nearly all their time standing outside in scanty clothing, often in cold or rainy weather, competing with eastern European and Latin American prostitutes who accuse them of price-cutting. Nigerian prostitutes usually live grouped in flats crowded with suitcases, the daily La Vanguardia reported. Their only distractions are to watch television soap operas and to go to church on Sundays. Those who are literate also read the Bible. "I was told I would repay my debt in three months," a prostitute named Caroline said. "When I found out how long it would take, I burst into tears." In Benin City, the departure of local women for Europe is not necessarily seen in a negative light, because it has allowed some of them to return home with cash to spare, the British weekly The Economist reported. Some girls or their families even seek "sponsors" to help them travel to Europe, where they say they will study or work as hairdressers. The women take about eight months to travel in trucks across the Sahara to Morocco, from where they make a dangerous crossing to Spain in rubber dinghies packed with illegal immigrants. Other Nigerian women fly to Europe on fake passports. Some end up in the Gulf countries. When the women arrive in Spain, Nigerian "connection men" pressure them into working as prostitutes while the madams or pimps supervise the operation from further away. Sometimes the women are sold like cattle and moved around Europe. Why do the women not report their controllers to police? They may have been threatened or beaten into submission, and the pimps also have another weapon -- magical rituals to which many women are submitted before leaving Benin City. Traditional healers cooperating with the traffickers may, for instance, take nail clippings, hair and blood from the women, making magical objects through which the madams or pimps are believed to have control over them. Belief in such rituals is so strong that the women fear for their lives, according to La Vanguardia, which published photographs of some rituals. The prostitutes can neither legalise their situation in Europe, nor get other jobs, nor return to Nigeria empty-handed.Non-governmental organisations are fighting the trade in Nigeria, but the persistence of poverty makes their task difficult. -- Sapa opyright |