The control of movementThe fact that movements are foreseen, often many kilometres on publictransport, to arrive at the place of work, could make us think of relative freedom;the threat of control, even if it is not effectively enacted, exercises a heavy weighton the behaviour of the victims. The presence of men that patrol the house of themadam and of which the women do not know the effective roles, bears witness tothe existence of a wide control, undertaken from a distance: “They never come near(...) at Tarquinia we went to this market, and did our shopping, having somefriends who had just finished paying you can ask them to keep your clothes, andthen you pass and collect them. T<strong>here</strong> were also shops who knew us w<strong>here</strong> youbought things, you left them t<strong>here</strong>, and said «When I come back around seven I willtake them». We left them t<strong>here</strong>. Towards seven, a girl said «I think I saw the boywho I had seen with the boss once» We made fun of her: «You saw a ghost, (...)wake up we are in Tarquinia», in the beginning we thought that she was makingfun of us. She said she had seen him, but he had disappeared. We forgot about it.In the evening we returned and took the bag. We took the train, arriving in Rome,descending from the train, the boy descended, but did not come near us. Wecontinued to say, «He saw us, he didn’t see us…» we were worried. If you denythat you did not see it is worse, so we went near «Ciao, ciao. Are you comingback?». He pretended t<strong>here</strong> was nothing and we returned to the house. At thehouse (the boss) was t<strong>here</strong> and said «Well, how did you dare to go shoppingwithout my consent? How did you dare spend money without telling me?» and withhis belt «bum, bum, bum»” (Interview Victim No.7).“I arrived in Piacenza by train, at the station I took a taxi to the area near thecemetery (…) I returned to Turin around seven in the morning and arrived at thehouse by bus. T<strong>here</strong> was no one waiting for us. When we arrived in the morning inTurin and returned to the house, we were not free, as we were locked in X. house,they locked us in, only she could go around free as she had finished paying ”“I have seen Y. many times at the station in Turin”.“Y. came to find us in Piacenza when I did not return to the house. I don’t knowhow, but she always knew how to find us” (Report of summary information ofvictims, criminal proceeding - Turin, 2000).According to some people, the control is undertaken in a constant mannerthroughout the day, even in the times not dedicated to work, as many of the placesoutside the work area frequented by the girls are in some way controlled by thesame organisation 41 .In many cases the organisation is so spread out over the territory to manage tocontrol the women indirectly, through individuals who are linked to those whoexploit them. A clear indication of this is the rapidity with which the madammanages to know that a woman did not go to work, and can immediately contacther, requesting the reason.“A: «W<strong>here</strong> are you?»B: «At the house.»41On this point see the following Chapter.
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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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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- Page 47 and 48: Figure No.5 - Trafficking routes th
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- Page 51 and 52: new dispositions and contacts to co
- Page 53 and 54: Then he sends her in a taxi to the
- Page 55 and 56: T. remains in this house for 21 day
- Page 57 and 58: detainees go towards the refectory,
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- Page 74 and 75: have no shop and then there is no p
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- Page 88 and 89: Control between psychological subje
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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