Each penal procedure on the subject always singles out the presence of astarting point in Nigeria: each madam maintains constant contacts with numerouspersons in Nigeria often through the mediation of the so-called Nigerian madam.In Nigeria t<strong>here</strong> are people who occupy themselves with the identification andsuccessive recruitment of the victims, the intimidation of their families, of the predispositionof the documents necessary for travel and also, in part, of the reemploymentof the proceeds 52 of the exploitation of prostitution.Given the absence of systematic collaboration with the Nigerian authorities, allthose involved in the traffic who reside in Nigeria are never reached by thecontrasting action of the police force, apart from the case w<strong>here</strong>, for some reason,they arrive in Europe and are intercepted <strong>here</strong>.Within Italian territory t<strong>here</strong> are numerous links between those who manage theexploitation of prostitution: not by chance many madams, even if operating in anarea of the peninsular, have residences elsew<strong>here</strong> or have a permission to stay fromPolice which is not that of the territory w<strong>here</strong> they are domiciled. All this is t<strong>here</strong>sult of the capillarity of the network, which <strong>allo</strong>ws an immediate exchange ofinformation and favours (for example how to obtain a false employment certificatein order to obtain a permission to stay).Also telephone contacts are very frequent, and not only, between differentsubjects throughout the whole peninsular:“A. refers to B. that she spoke with the mother of B., and to have told her aboutthe debt she has with the friend of the mother of C. A. continues saying that whenshe goes to Naples for the meeting, if the woman does not give her money, she willknife her. During the conversation she refers again to this saying when she goes toNaples for the meeting she will knife her and no one should say anything ”.“B. says she knows that the girls have not left, but that she prefers that theyleave after she returns from the trip to Rome ”.“A. says that with all the mess she has in the house, she can’t go to Naples,even if she has to take money, t<strong>here</strong>fore she has to ask her to come to Turinbecause she can’t move” (Transcription of telephone intercepts, criminalproceeding - Turin, 2001).Further traces of the existence of the network are found investigating paymentseffected by money transfer. In an investigation undertaken in Triveneto it has beenascertained that different payments, of not much money, were made in favour ofpersons of Nigerian nationality in various parts of Italy and always coming fromother areas of the peninsular.Within the same geographical area the contacts are connected with themanagement of business (arrivals of new victims, exchanges and sale of places ofwork, exchange of information on police activities, etc.) and are nearly all daily:even if each has her own girls to manage, t<strong>here</strong> is a strong cohesion, a goodexchange of information and necessary help is given.52See infra paragraph 5.4.
“T. telephones E. and says that one of the girls she has in the house does nothave clothes to work, t<strong>here</strong>fore she asks E., telling her that she cannot wait untilMonday. E. says that is alright because in fact that girl cannot wait until Mondayand that she will bring clothes and will also take the girl to her work post ”.“T. talks to E. about the difficulty of work for the girls because of the presenceof the police and the necessity to control one of the girls who was in hospital; ofthe fact that the night is full of girls who work and that O. has sent her girls t<strong>here</strong>”(Transcription of telephone intercepts, criminal proceeding - Turin, 2001).The links, even if not daily, are frequent even within the national territory.Numerous telephone intercepts 53 have uncovered the existence of a tested salessystem and exchange of girls within Italian territory (and in some cases also withother European countries). If a woman does not earn or it has become difficult tomake her work because she has met a man with whom she has started arelationship, or t<strong>here</strong> is the fear she will escape, the organisation is able veryrapidly to move her to another zone and give her to another madam.In this case the woman is given to the new madam against payment of a sum ofmoney, or in exchange with another woman, or the new madam simply managesthe victim on behalf of the other, keeping a part of the earnings or even enjoying, inan exclusive manner, the profits earned from the payment of board and lodging ofthe joint.The relations between madams active in different places have also otherreasons: in one criminal proceeding 54 for example, a telephone conversation wastaped in which one madam says to another that she needs to have a woman broughtfrom Naples to Turin to have an abortion and makes an agreement on how tomanage this move as quickly as possible. The level of collaboration reached,t<strong>here</strong>fore appears as high as to make a telephone call sufficient to agree on a moveand on the type of service, even delicate, to be rendered.The network, however, also appears spread throughout European territory. Indifferent investigations, numerous appear to be the telephone contacts with peoplein foreign countries who offer hospitality to the women during the journey or whotake it upon themselves to temporarily manage a woman while waiting for whent<strong>here</strong> is the possibility to have her arrive at the destination.If it is necessary to send a woman away from Italy for a certain period, whenneeded it is possible to call upon this network and to temporarily find anotherplace: France, Spain, and the Netherlands seem to be the countries w<strong>here</strong> t<strong>here</strong> aremajor contacts for this type of brief transfer 55 .During the journey of her “merchandise”, the madam also has the possibility torely on some persons present in the different territories w<strong>here</strong> the victim shouldtransit, who are able to intervene if something “goes wrong”.53In nearly all the criminal proceedings analysed t<strong>here</strong> are references to sales of women.54This is a recent criminal proceeding started in the area of Naples.55The interviews carried out to Law Enforcement officers and the telephone intercepts of differentcriminal proceedings contain various elements confirming this point.
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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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In this variegated framework, the d
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“Benin City is one of those State
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Various privileged witnesses of the
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In the first years of the traffic o
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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 61 and 62: was accepted by the Ivory Coast pol
- Page 63 and 64: B.E. «Yes, I was given a Ghanaian
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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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- Page 96 and 97: Often it is the same madam who move
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- Page 110 and 111: A: «You have to bring me a present
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- Page 124 and 125: In the case of the girls having mor
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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