here - Cooperazione Italiana allo Sviluppo

“How did I come? There was a friend of mine, we went to school together, shesaid to me «You are so clever at school, but you know that if you go to Europe youwill be a success», and so I said «Alright, I will try». But she told me “Don’t sayanything to anyone», and I said «But are you coming too?». «No, no I will stayhere», she replied, «but you will go with a friend of my father», I went back to thehouse happy, and I told my father and he said «No, no you mustn’t go» shouting atme, and I said «But aren’t you happy?», perhaps he understood I don’t know, Iwas the eldest daughter and he told me «Don’t try» (…). But this stuck in my throatand I said “but if I want to go and study in Europe, why should he say no (…).That day that I should have departed I said to my father: «Today you won’t see mewhen you get back from work». He understood and locked me in the house and Iescaped through the window…I was a bit hard headed, because it was as if oneprevented a child from obtaining a dream ” (Interview Victim No.10).There exist cases of women who voluntarily choose to come to Italy toprostitute themselves, pushed, without doubt by economic necessity (supportingchildren born outside marriage, being abandoned by the man who is father of theirchildren, elderly parents, or other family members who need support, etc.), but atthe same time stimulated by the mirage of easy and important gains to spend inmaterial goods, symbols of their social escalation.For all of them, even those aware of the choice, the conditions of work andamount of liberty conceded in terms of management of time, money and their ownindependence 20 , remain obscure.“Now they all know that you come to make prostitution, but they don’t knowthat you have to go on the street, they think it is in the house, as they do in othercountries, only in Italy do you work on the street. They don’t think that it is so coldhere. They think that there is money here and they come to make money. In Nigeriathey see that those who once did not eat three times a day, now eat, dress well, sothey say even my daughter must leave to earn a bit of money” (Interview VictimNo.8).“Before leaving Nigeria I knew what I was coming to do, but I did not know itwas on the street. They told me that I would have repaid in two months, but it wasnot like that” (Interview Victim No.4).“I knew that here you made prostitution, I came here with my own money, I didnot come through a pimp. But I did not know how to get here. Where I lived therewas a woman who had already been here, I said that I also wanted to go to Italy.She said to me «Alright you pay me and I will take you». I told her no, that I havemy own money. She said «Alright, I will help you, prepare all the documents youneed, like that you go». However that women lied (she deceived me) she took mymoney and gave me to an agency so when I arrived here I had to pay (…). If, whenI was in Nigeria, I had known that you have to pay to be under other persons whotell you, do this, do that I would not have come (…). If I had known that you comehere to pay, to become a child under other persons, I would not have come ever”(Interview Victim No.9).20On point, infra, Chapter IV.