here - Cooperazione Italiana allo Sviluppo

Often it is the same madam who moves around inside Europe to go and “take”a woman who, because of the intervention of the police or due to other problemsduring the journey, had to temporarily stay abroad. If the madam cannot move shecan rely on one of the affiliates present in the territory who, against payment, willaccompany the woman to Italy. Also, when the women are repatriated, a welltestedsystem is put in place which permits immediate contact and the successivere-embarkation towards Europe 56 .The cluster development as a mechanism of self-reproductionAn important and characteristic aspect of the organisational structure isconstituted by its ability to multiply itself and to always create new branches, evenif only for some specific tasks.In many criminal proceedings some persons “appear”, mostly women of thesame nationality, to whom it is possible to give the victims for a certain period oftime: for example in the case where a search by the police is feared or in the casewhere the madam must absent herself for a certain period of time and prefers tokeep a close control over her women.Often it is a sporadic collaboration, given out of economic necessity and whichwill not give birth to another knot in the exploitation network.However there are numerous cases of ex-prostitutes who, having paid their debtand liberated themselves, start to manage other women following a type of subtenderby their old madam: the so-called controllers.As can be seen in Figure 7, taken from the investigation quoted (undertaken inUdine), it is in most cases women who, once having obtained freedom from theorganisation find themselves without any documents and irregularly present onItalian territory. It is therefore very difficult for them to start any type of work and,on the other hand is practically impossible, to return to Nigeria without being ableto demonstrate success regarding their migration.Nothing remains but “to put oneself in business” collaborating with their oldmadam to manage some women, or otherwise acquiring one or two girls to start tomanage them, under her supervision. In this way the madam manages to makemoney on a larger number of women and also succeeds to optimise hermanagement, thanks to the help of the controller who in part allows her to evadethe controls of the police.56It is thought that already at the airport in the stay centres for women repatriated to Nigeria there issomeone to meet them, take them, and place them again in the traffic.