The menace of girl-child trafficking for the purpose of prostitution overseas has drawn and received the attention of three prominent Edo women, writes Adibe Emenyonu Abieyuwa (not real name) was 20 years old when she was trafficked to Italy in 1996. Before her departure, she was promised a good paid factory work as soon as she arrived there. Coming from a poor home and the first among eight children, she jumped at the offer, not knowing it was all false.
Osatohanmwen, a native of Ugbogui, Ovia South Southwest local government area of Edo State had a similar experience when she was approached by a relation who promised to take her to one of the European countries so that her parent's ordeal of taking care of 10 children can be reduced. She was told that on getting there, a good paying job awaits her; that in no distant time, her family will leap out of their poor condition.
Edo State is not alone in the prostitution business. Other ethnic groups also have their fair share of compromising part of their value system and enlisted themselves in the scandalous commercialisation of their bodies. Although Abieyuwa, Osatohanmwen and many others succeeded in getting to their dream destination, they ended up not at the promised factory work or any other good paid job, but as women of easy virtues, hawking their bodies for the highest bidder.
And because they are operating in a foreign land, they are subjected to all manner of ill-treatment since they do not possess entry documents as required by the law of the countries where they operate. The most agonising is that a good number of them either contact deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS and other STDs, some even die only for their dead bodies to be repatriated to their parents for burial. For instance, in a recent study, a Paris-based photographer, Elena Perlino, highlights the situation being faced by the trafficked girls. Perlino, originally from Italy, said she began to notice the presence of young African women working on the streets during her commutes from Turin to Milan in Italy.
She said: "I decided to start from this surreal vision to tell a story. I have been working on the topic for several years, focusing mainly on the Italian connection."
Perlino reveals that many Nigerian women come to Italy hoping to make enough money from honest work as nannies or factory workers to support their families back home, but are tricked by traffickers into working in the sex trade.
"I noticed a Nigerian woman commuting between Turin and Milan on the 4am train. Traffickers demand on average more than 50,000 euros ($60,000) for travel expenses and accommodation, with the women having to work as prostitutes until their debts are paid off. According to her, 80 per cent of women trafficked to Italy come from Benin City, Edo State, in south Nigeria".
The photographer explained further saying: "My work attempts to show a complex phenomenon that crosses Italy from North to South. This involves many cities including Turin, Milan, Genoa, Rome, Naples and Palermo and thousands of Nigerian and Italian people".
Apparently as result of this revelation the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) declared Nigeria among the top eight countries with the highest human trafficking rates in the world.
And because eighty per cent of Nigerian women trafficked to Italy come from Benin City, Edo State, in south Nigeria, organisations like Idia Renaissance, an NGO founded by Eki Igbinedion, wife of former governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, began advocating against human trafficking and prostitution whether at home or in the Diaspora.
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