“T<strong>here</strong> was a secret” - T. recalls - “because we could not cross that grassrolled up [hay, Ed.], because we were on ice. They made us dismount and walktowards the ice (...) they made us all mount on the horses, t<strong>here</strong> was a mafiaperson in front and one behind; I was behind with him in front and we walked andhe said «you must not all go together, one at a time because you must arrive at theend». The walk was half an hour, the horses were made to walk slowly, slowly …we did not know anything…it was ice. Then (…) we had just arrived, we were 5, 10who were finishing crossing this place in the open and we heard a crack…Westarted to fall, and then the man got down and pulled me out. And they all entered,he had said to them, go one behind the other and they had gone all together…andboom, they went and started to fall, fall, fall [into the water, Ed.]. Then I don’tremember anything more. When I awoke I was inside a house, t<strong>here</strong> was no oneelse. All those people...and one of the mafia. T<strong>here</strong> was only the man that hadaccompanied me, the other was no more. T<strong>here</strong> was no one else. T<strong>here</strong> was myselfand another 30 persons. We were all Africans, we were alright, and we remainedin 15 and 15 Bangladeshis. Of the Philippinos t<strong>here</strong> was not one ”.The survivors started a long trip on foot until Hungary: “every day we shouldwalk a bit and arrive w<strong>here</strong> we could hide ”.They arrive in Hungary in April w<strong>here</strong> they had to stop in a house hidden in awood. After three days D. returned and announced a new departure. The 31survivors started off again accompanied by new traffickers, around 7, 8 persons.They had to repeat the same route and climb the first mountain that they hadencountered. They arrive after many hours walking in an inhabited place w<strong>here</strong>they are once again abandoned by their escorts. The entire group was inside avillage and after a short while were discovered by the police who took them to arefugee centre in Ljubljana.According to T., it was D. who advised the Slovenian police that he had leftpeople in the wood: this could have been a considered strategy by D., to rejoin,with the collusion of the Slovenian police, the objective to <strong>allo</strong>w the entire group tocross the border.They stay in the refugee centre for three days, and then they are transferred to aprison far from Ljubljana w<strong>here</strong> they remain one month. In the prison chicken poxbroke out and T. obtained permission to speak to the head of the police to ask if shecould be released. That same day all the Nigerian girls are released and transferredagain to Ljubljana near the refugee camp.“When we were leaving M. [a policeman, Ed.] arrived and told us «You knownow we will take you into an open camp? From this camp you can telephone, dowhat you want, and can even escape into Italy, if you take the bus», he told us all,he made a drawing, but we had to all walk again. Otherwise we are to call ourfamilies to take us away from the camp. He had said that from t<strong>here</strong> you escape.This was an informer of D. They worked together, but they pretended not to ”.Arriving in the centre of Ljubljana they remain for two, three weeks, and thenslowly the exodus towards the border with Italy starts. They go in cars, or by footpaying 1,000 Euros to the locals who offer to accompany them to the border.
At this point the organisation escorts are no longer necessary because “that M.[the policeman, Ed.] had informed us how we should go to enter into Italy, becauseif D. would have to take us we should pay him again, understand? He had waitedto see who would remain and perhaps then come with a small lorry ”.T. departs with the last of them, escorted by an Italian girl in a car. She is bynow in the last months of pregnancy and could not survive other long journeys byfoot. The Italian girl leaves T., two other Nigerian girls and a Romanian boy a shortway before the border. The four of them waded across the river and on Italianterritory find another car ready to take them. They had just departed when theywere stopped by a road block and taken to the Police station in Gorizia. “They tookour finger prints, we slept t<strong>here</strong> and in the morning they gave us the expulsionpapers. They asked us w<strong>here</strong> we came from. All of us said the same thing, we said«I don’t know, with the boat we came <strong>here</strong> and I don’t know w<strong>here</strong> I am». Weshould have said that. «With the boat we arrived in Europe, we walked very muchand now we don’t know w<strong>here</strong> we are». They gave us the expulsion papers andwhen they left us we went outside, then they came back and I asked «Excuse me,w<strong>here</strong> is the station?» Then he said «Oh so you know w<strong>here</strong> you are». And I «Idon’t know but if I find the station I will find something to eat». Then he said «Oh,so you must eat!» And the other one «No, I must go to Milan» «Good grief, butwhat are you saying». They laughed and said «we will accompany you to thestation”.T. and the other two girls take the train to Milan; the Romanian boy went inanother direction. Reaching Milan the sister of one of the two girls collects us, thefollowing morning a madam from Rimini came to buy the other. T. departs againthe next day for Rome, with the fear that it is very far from Milan, but in the firsthours of the afternoon she is in the capital, and waiting for her is B. who takes herto her house “and t<strong>here</strong> hell started”.c) Journey overlandExemple of what an overland journey from Africa can be and the account ofthis woman taken from trial documentation:“When I went via Benin City it was May-June of 2000 (…) we reached Ghanaw<strong>here</strong> A. leaves us. We were joined by many coloured people, men and women.From Ghana however I did not depart by air as I had been promised, in fact wedeparted in three small lorries, each one transported about 30 persons, crossingMali, Niger, Algeria and Morocco, I remember having crossed the desertsometimes on foot, then changing transport. During the trip one lorry was lost inthe desert and I think that they all died. Someone tried to escape because theconditions were inhuman, we were all stacked together, but was obliged to getback on the lorry. I remember that from my lorry a man fell and died. He whoindicated the route and who drove the lorry was the same man that we had met inBenin City, a friend of Madam A.”.“We arrived in Morocco after about two months, precisely in the city of Rabatthe same man took money from the Western Union Agency that had been sent byA., and this was to be used to pay the voyage by boat from Morocco to Spain. Each
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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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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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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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under the profile of the “quality
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person to obtain either relevant re
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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