“We are going to a place w<strong>here</strong> t<strong>here</strong> are all types of wodoo that you canimagine, outside t<strong>here</strong> were all the figures (…) those who go t<strong>here</strong> know that theyare going to make wodoo (…), it is like a building, t<strong>here</strong> are all sorts of types offigures that you can imagine, monsters, etc. ” (Interview Victim No.7).“If you see what they do it will frighten you” (Interview Victim No.2).“T<strong>here</strong> are various ways, they use water, all sorts of herbs that smell, perhapsthey have put a six month old herb, they always use that water, they cut you, manythings” (Interview Victim No.7).“You go inside the room and you immediately know, t<strong>here</strong> is a strange smell,impossible to explain. They do it t<strong>here</strong> with crude things, meat, chickens, goats;they take the heart and eat it crude. You must share it and swear” (InterviewVictim No.10).“I went to this witch doctor; they had taken the head of a dead man, then putwater inside and made me drink it” (Interview Victim No.5).“For wodoo they take off your panties, brassiere, and wait until youmenstruate, they take off the sanitary pad that you have used for the menstruation,they take away your hairs under your armpits, they take everything” (InterviewVictim No.5).Despite the fact that from the testimony of the victims, t<strong>here</strong> emerges theobligation to do the rite before the departure for Europe, in some cases this was notdone because of the firm refusal of the girl. The reasons for the refusal can berooted in a strong religious belief of the girl, and t<strong>here</strong>fore in the lack ofacknowledgement of the value of wodoo as a pact between the two partiesinvolved, or in the fear of such practices which comprise an oath in which they donot fundamentally believe to be all-binding.For such subjects and for those who, despite the rite undertaken beforedeparture, appear to be controlled with difficulty by the madam, because toorebellious and independent, then the next step is menaces, which often come about,to make wodoo in Nigeria against them. In this case, the nature of the rite ischanged, from a strict bond between two consentient parties, to what appears moreas a magic practise to damage the person aimed at. Such menaces often result inbeing an efficacious means also for those who previously were able to not fall intothe trap of the mechanism of wodoo.“I wanted to go and she told me that I was not going anyw<strong>here</strong>. She called meone morning about six o’clock, and told me «today you give me your nails, yourhair and your panties and I must take a photograph of you in the nude. If you payme the debt, I will give it back to you». That day I went to work and cut my nailsshort because I did not want my nails cut while I was sleeping” (Interview VictimNo.4).The subjection to the rite is a fundamental element in exploitation ofprostitution of the Nigerian women and is one of the steps that permit to say thatone is faced with a form of very strong psychological and moral subjection.
Various privileged witnesses of the police referred to their initial difficulty andtheir scepticism when faced with this situation w<strong>here</strong>by the increase of knowledgewas transformed into the understanding of being faced with an extremely bindingmechanism, for which, independently from the project of life that the victim hadfrom the start she remains trapped.The tie is so strong not only because of the terrible risk of falling into disgraceand in ills at psycho-physical level, but also for its significance on the level ofrelations with the family and with the community. From accounts gat<strong>here</strong>d t<strong>here</strong>appears to be in fact a great importance attached to the assumption of the promiseto the community: the rite does not only tie on the magic-religious level, but alsoties on the social level, and, not respecting it, constitutes an element of dishonourin front of the entire community.In addition the belief that someone possesses part of the body of another is awell rooted belief and t<strong>here</strong>fore occupies a position of supremacy.“You are tied to them, you are tied to this oath, you are obliged to respect it.And t<strong>here</strong> are those who, I don’t know how to explain it, those who command youbecause this oath exists. They must command you, control you, and you areobliged to respect it” (Interview Victim No.7).In the interview made with a psychologist, who since many years has worked ina community which takes in Nigerian victims, this aspect has been carefullystudied. For the Nigerian girls: “The contract is a language based on signs, onagreements of words, on a faith mediated by words (…) the Nigerians still play onthis: the word is the most important thing. The wodoo sign according to me is onlyan ulterior sanction, because the bargaining is at the beginning. We, with ourwestern mentality have perhaps stopped at the concrete sign, wodoo, but the pactis pre-existing” (On the Road Association - Martinscuro).One of the reasons for which it is so difficult for the Nigerian girls to escape theconditions of the pact, resides t<strong>here</strong>fore also in the sentiment of loyalty to their owncommunity, which was sealed by a solemn promise, which morally binds, of whichwodoo is only the formal dressing.Not by chance, under the psychological profile, the sense of treachery towardsthe community of belonging is the most difficult to fight for victims who considerthe possibility of flight. This, as will be seen in Chapter VI, is one of the aspectswhich makes difficult accompanying the victims towards a new life.According to the opinion of some of the police, the level of subjection in part istied to the social extraction and cultural level: in some cases - which however arereferred as being isolated and sporadic - a good cultural level, together with astrong Christian religious faith, has enabled the victims to liberate themselves, evenquickly, from the fear provoked by wodoo rites. On the magic level the strength ofa faith in God acts by cancelling the powers of the rite and those who officiates it.On the level of formal undertaking, Catholic morale guarantees the maintenance ofthe undertaking made.“As he knows that I am a person who lives in my little honesty. I grew up in aChristian family who is afraid of God and he knows that I cannot say that I cannot
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- Page 43 and 44: pay considerable sums for lodging,
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Control between psychological subje
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arms), tortured in many different f
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C H A P T E R VT h e o r g a n i s
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Each penal procedure on the subject
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Often it is the same madam who move
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Even in numerous recent criminal pr
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work arrangements (…) persons tha
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man all the money she had in the ho
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in the plates and everything and th
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exploitation) has reached an amount
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C H A P T E R V IT h e e n d o f t
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A: «You have to bring me a present
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Often the family is however not abl
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the different evaluations of the as
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The discussions on the possibility
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eal results: to distance herself fr
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of a different culture is very impo
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C H A P T E R V I IC o n s i d e r
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In the case of the girls having mor
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As has been many times noted, the c
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under the profile of the “quality
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person to obtain either relevant re
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Numerous are the criminal juridical
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If the accused claims to not knowin
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sanctions, sometimes, also in prese
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d) Investigative and judiciary co-o
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The reform foresees, under Art. 1,
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which the woman can definitively tu
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witnesses, social operators - agree
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and necessary, therefore, to think
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in many cases they are driven to th
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Melossi, D., (2002), “Le teorie s