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here - Cooperazione Italiana allo Sviluppo

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A: «No and you did not go to work.»B: «I am at the house of X, I was tired, I was not well but he gave me money»A: «Get up and go back to the house, you can’t do what you want»” (telephoneintercepts, criminal proceeding - Turin, 2002).The control on earningsThe strictest control relates to the rhythm of work and the woman’s capacity toearn. Some madams ask daily for the earnings. Each girl, in the morning shouldhand over the earnings obtained during the night or the preceding day inside acontainer situated in the bedroom of the madam. Often it is not a pre-decidedamount, but in the case of low earnings the woman may be shouted at, threatenedor hit.In other cases the collection occurs at fixed times, or every week or everyfifteen days. The sum to be handed over is about three million lire per month but,according to the testimony of the women, it can be much higher, arriving at twomillion per week. Also in this case, if the woman does not earn much, she can behit, and threatened with violence to her family. In some cases for those that areslow to pay, the sanction consists, apart from violence, to an increase of the debt:“He hit a girl named A. and left her without two teeth. He hit her because A.worked very little, she earned very little (…) they use the money for business, youcannot keep it. If each year you didn’t earn half of your debt, 10 million more. Itwas his way of working” (Interview Victim No.7).The control system can extend itself also to Nigeria: if it is noticed that theparents of the woman have started to conduct an easier way of life, they accuse thegirl of sending money home without the consent of the exploiters.The control through sanctions and punishmentThe behaviour to punish is t<strong>here</strong>fore multiple and the sanctions can be of aphysical or monetary type. In the majority of the cases, but t<strong>here</strong> are exceptions andvariations, the victims are not free to move around, excluding the journeys to goand come from work. They cannot spend the money earned (even clothes andproducts for body care are provided by the madam and the amount, often more thantripled in respect to its effective value, is detracted from the debt), nor send it to thefamily left at home. In addition, as we have seen, it is not in any way permitted tocontact persons of the family or friends present on Italian territory or resident inEurope.The girls are warned about eventual contacts with the police and theassociations which operate in the field (for example with those units on the street).Sentimental relationships with Nigerian boys or Africans in general are notpermitted, because they are considered dangerous for maintaining the relationshipof subjection of the victims to the madams.

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