This Day (Lagos, Nigeria), March 24, 2003

This Day (Lagos, Nigeria), March 24, 2003

http://allafrica.com/stories/200303240827.html

WORRYING ACTIVITIES OF HUMAN TRAFFICKERS:

TWO SUSPECTS TO BE PROSECUTED

AS ITALY FORCES HOME 82 VICTIMS, TWO TRAFFICKERS,

TWO DRUGS COURIERS

By Chris Anucha

Coincidentally, two of them bear the same first name, Joy. But their activities could be anything but joyous to the teenage girls they recruited and exported to Europe for prostitution. Many of the under aged girls die, even before they get to their destination in Europe; others are out rightly sold as slaves, while many are ruined by all kinds of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including the dreaded Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome(AIDS). For instance, in order to escape the eagle eyes of security operatives, trafficked girls were made to pass through tortuous routs, including the Sahara Desert to Europe. The country, on the other hand, had had her image battered, no thanks to the activities of these women of easy virtue. In the recent times, human trafficking has dealt a deadly blow on what drug trafficking had remained of "Nigeria's image."

The rate at which teenage girls were trafficked to Europe was worrisome, causing fears that unless drastic measures were taken, human traffickers may beat the record of drug couriers in no time. The reason was not far fetched. Many people have attributed this to the harsh economic situation in the country. More Nigerians were daily getting poorer. One of the consequences, however, was that when parents are approached by traffickers to release them for "jobs" abroad, they do it with excitement. Even where parents are aware of the kind of "jobs" the girls are introduced to over there, they chose to close their eyes to the reality on ground. Others, out of ignorance, give out their children in the hope that it would alleviate their sufferings, deceived into believing that their daughters had juicy jobs, ready for them in Europe. Currently, trafficking on young girls is a thriving business in the country. The Federal Government was not unaware of the fact, as many steps had already been taken in the past tin the quest to stem the ugly tide.

But if the war against human trafficking must be won, the government must get to the root cause, identify and smash the barons and their International collaborators. Unfortunately, what we have been parading on television and pages of newspapers were victims of the illicit business.

It has not been easy, arresting those behind the booming business. But on March 6, 2003, what could be regarded as the beginning of a break through was recorded in this regard. Out of the 88 Nigerians deported from Italy, two of them were alleged to be human traffickers.

The girls were said to have been involved in the recruitment of young Nigerian girls as sex slaves in European Countries in the past years. Among the deportees also were two men alleged to be trafficking on hard drugs, and were immediately handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency

(NDLEA), while the other 84 girls, suspected to be prostitutes, were handed over to the Federal Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Alagbon, for release to their individual families. But the two Joys could not regain their freedom immediately. Not even their tears could make Ms Nnenna Mbagwu, Comptroller of Immigrations, Human Trafficking and Child Labour, to change her mind. The order from "above" would not permit of that.

"These are the kind of people we are looking for, the traffickers are our target. They are the ones we want to track down. As soon as we do that, we are on our way to winning the war against human trafficking, I can assure you that hard times await them", she told City Diary.

The two girls, she said, would be charged soon, to serve as deterrent to others. Mbagwu explained that her visits to some European countries, especially Italy, in the course of discharging her duties, have given insights into what trafficked girls go through in the hands of their "Madams", as they are usually called.

On-the-spot assessment of the situation, she said, revealed pitiable sight of under aged girls, who were forced into the streets of Italy as commercial sex workers. Many of them, Mbagwu said, claimed they engaged in the illegal trade forcefully, as they had no choice but to do it for their own safety. Findings further revealed that the recruited girls were made to make daily returns to their "bosses". Failure to meet such targets, City Diary gathered, could attract punishments, ranging from physical assault to outright sale of such "lazy workers" to intending buyers.

But the two suspected traffickers maintained that they were being accused wrongly, claiming to have lived in Italy on genuine business for quite some time.

For instance, 26-year-old Joy Joe, told City Diary that she was a seamstress and had lived in Italy in the last Seven years. Joy could not understand why she should be deported on the allegation of being a human trafficker. She claimed to have been picked up from her shop by Italian security officials. In her words: "I have been sewing and selling clothing materials since I went to Italy, I don't know why I am here, I was picked up from my shop. I paid Italian government IMPS (tax) every four months in the last four years". Further justifying her unlawful deportation, Joy said she couldn't have been paying $1000 to the Italian Government, as tax, if actually she was trafficking on girls.

She said, however, that every foreigner in that country was expected to pay the tax, a claim immediately countered by Mbagwu. Some of the money claimed to have been paid by the girls, she said, were bills for social services, and could not be taken to mean that the host country condoned their illegalities. An indigene of Warri, Delta State , Joy, who displayed the receipts of the tax she allegedly paid to the Italian government, said she was a victim of a new law recently enacted in Italy. By her account, there was a new law in that country, which makes provision for a grant of green papers (resident permit) to prostitutes or underage call-girls, as the case may be, who give information that could lead to the arrest of traffickers that brought them to Italy.

She said that since the law came into being, many Nigerian girls, who want to stay in Italy, have capitalised on it to witch-hunt themselves. Those, who were desperate about becoming citizens, she alleged, hide under the opportunity to 'deal' with their perceived enemies. "We now avoid ourselves, any slight provocation could lead to somebody telling the immigration officers that you brought her to Italy for prostitution", she explained. Her claim was corroborated by Joy Imafidon. In her own case, the drama about her deportation started when she had a misunderstanding with an other Nigerian girl, called Blessing Ogedengbe, who is still in Italy. The 28-year-old Joy, from Edo State, said her troubles started when Blessing indicated her intention to pack out of the house they rented together.

She said they had outstanding bills, which she wanted her to pay her own part before packing her personal effects out of the house, but she (Blessing) refused. The misunderstanding, she later told City Diary, degenerated into fisticuffs, and the next thing Blessing did was to report to the police, who immediately came to pick her up.

"They asked me to follow them to sign some papers, the next thing they did was to force me into the plane", she said. Imafidon, who claimed to have worked for an Italian man for three years before going it alone, said she currently has a business Centre at Via Saccarelli 32, off Corso Regina Margherita, stating that she had been in Italy for eight years.

She claimed to have lost over $10,000 as a result of her deportation. The most painful aspect, she said, was that the Italian lawyer she hired to defend her disappointed her when she needed his services most. "Tell the Italian government to pay me all the money I have lost. That lawyer should be asked to refund all my money", Joy said, weeping profusely.