eal results: to distance herself from the logic of the pact sealed with themadam/exploiter and with the family/community that has supported andguaranteed it.The victims interviewed usually respond in a negative manner to filing a report,emphasising the danger for their own safety and that of their families.“It is useless that <strong>here</strong> they say file a report, it will not resolve the problem, butincrease it, because you sent this person to prison, but sooner or later they will befree and in the end it is not only you to be threatened, but also your parents.T<strong>here</strong>fore it is too easy: report this and they give you documents. Rightly a girlwho arrives does not know how to read, doesn’t know anything, requests apermission to stay, and then? What does she do? When that person comes out ofprison, what does she do? What to do, you can’t go to Nigeria? Italy is noteverything, but even if you don’t go anymore to Nigeria, t<strong>here</strong> are your parents. InNigeria t<strong>here</strong> is no justice, those who have money win. The person in prison isricher than you, and uses all the money to punish you for what you did. This Italianlaw according to me is making a mistake in this thing. «You file a report againstwho sent you <strong>here</strong> and I will free you». You are fooling this person, you are notgiving freedom. First of all I can’t go to Nigeria, the girls don’t know this, theydiscover this after, and it is like permission for political asylum. More or less likethat. Second, we all are in fear of being followed, with the fear that someone killsme. They are killed and are never free, because the police in Italy can only protectyou up to a certain point, and then? ” (Interview Victim No.9).“Filing a report is risky for the family and then you will never be free in yourlife. They can leave you now for three or four years, because: those who make theshit forget, those who pass after him and paid, never forget. With us even if 20years have passed…gain more and kill you, your children and grandchildren. Whoreports is in great danger” (Interview Victim No.5).The operators - even those that consider filing a report an important instrumentin combatting the links that feature exploitation - have often observed in the girlsan instrumental attitude: the complaint is the means to obtain a permission to stayand start a new life more than an occasion of moral redemption.At the same time when they understand all the implications 83 , it becomes in theperception of the victims, a new tie which impedes complete freedom. In fact thisinvolves the availability to collaborate (to be available, to be placed in a protectedenvironment, etc.) even if, with respect to the more complex problems of survival,the sensation is that of being left to themselves, abandoned by the police and theinstitutions that have asked for and received such a complaint.The only point of reference and support at this point is that represented by theassociations, lay and religious organisations.“The police abandon the girls, it’s not right. If it wasn’t for the associations,Caritas, we are dead in their hands ” (Interview Victim No.7).83Often, affirm the victims, one does not immediately realise what filing a report involves, and this is putin substitution of the payment of the debt: “Normally when one is not able to pay the debt, then theyreport. If I could pay the debt then I would not have filed a report: if I don’t want to be a pimp, I don’tdo it, but I won’t risk reporting” (Interview Victim No.2).
T<strong>here</strong> are police that recognise the need to acquire the trust of the women andthe importance of clarifying the path to take after filing a report. Unfortunately,however, together with operators who have acquired a professional approach whichpermits them to understand the difficulty of the women, one encounters operatorswithout this characteristic.Without taking into consideration that, for those who arrive at having to sustaina complaint in a court, it can be perceived as a lack of trust in a justice which oftenis based, according to the interviewees, on the power of money of the madam andon the lack of guarantees: tomorrow your lawyer will not defend that very madamthat you are denouncing?“My lawyer...tomorrow may be the one who madam asks to defend her. She willpay him more and what you say becomes a lie. According to me t<strong>here</strong> should belawyers prepared, even if you do not have money and they should not also defendthe madam, they should defend the girls, if they defend the girls (…) if theselawyers are prepared to defend the girls, (the girls) have more faith, are morestrong. If instead someone defends me and then defends the madam, you can’tunderstand anything any more” (Interview Victim No.3).Taken in charge and the start of a new lifeThe exit path often starts with the transfer to a “house of escape” or anyhow toa protected place, far away from the place of exploitation, and continues in a“house of reception” of a community type, in which the girls, in conditions ofsemi-autonomy, receive various types of assistance (psychological, economic,sanitary, legal, etc.) and follow training paths which generally are completed withthe start of work, which may permit the woman to start a condition of fullautonomy.The paths of being accompanied to autonomy have various durations. On theformal way and the bureaucratic steps necessary to obtain the permission to stay,the variables which are principally required are precision and the reliability of t<strong>here</strong>port, the facility to verify through investigations the circumstances denounced,the absence of formal obstacles (such as prior expulsions) and lastly the time forthe Police and the Prosecutor to give their opinion concerning what is requested(which is much quicker in small centres than in large cities).The time and the outcome depend on the active participation of the woman inthe programme. The interviews carried out with the operators have shown somecritical moments, mostly related to cultural elements: the community life, t<strong>here</strong>spect of timing and regulations, the difficulties in some types of work, t<strong>here</strong>lationship with money and the learning of its management.The operators often mention the difficulty of integration of the Nigerian girls inthe community life, which they encounter dividing the space with victims of othernationalities, or users from a different path of life. Faced with these difficulties,some associations have arrived at the decision to no longer propose co-habitationof Nigerian women with those of other nationalities. Others - and these are themajority - maintain however that the passage through a confrontation with persons
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TRAFFICKINGOF NIGERIAN GIRLSTO ITAL
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F O R E W O R D1. Objectives and st
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and who have identified the most si
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on the other hand, for those involv
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Case files analysed: Preventive det
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Table 2 - Socio-economic situation
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Table 3 - Nigerian citizens regular
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Table 5 - Social protection permiss
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Table 7 - Number of persons charged
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Table 8 - Detainee population sub-d
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and the United States enables this
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C H A P T E R IW a y s a n d p h a
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Figure No.2 - Edo State.It is not c
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Nigeria. From 1996 in Benin City an
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In this variegated framework, the d
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“Benin City is one of those State
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Various privileged witnesses of the
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In the first years of the traffic o
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pay considerable sums for lodging,
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The routesWe find at least three ty
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Figure No.5 - Trafficking routes th
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The journey overland through Africa
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new dispositions and contacts to co
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Then he sends her in a taxi to the
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T. remains in this house for 21 day
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detainees go towards the refectory,
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At this point the organisation esco
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was accepted by the Ivory Coast pol
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B.E. «Yes, I was given a Ghanaian
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Now the documents are “hired”:
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