‘80 percent of Nigerian women who travelled to Italy in 2016 will become prostitutes,’ UN says

According to the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM), 3,600 Nigerian women arrived in Italy in the first half of 2016 and more than 80 percent of those women will be trafficked into prostitution.

The number of Nigerian women travelling to Italy has also doubled, the organization said.

“What we have seen this year is a crisis, it is absolutely unprecedented and is the most significant increase in the number of Nigerian women arriving in Italy for 10 years,”Simona Moscarelli, an anti-trafficking expert at the IOM, was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Moscarelli said further that majority of the women were deliberately brought into the country for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

She also warned that the current policy of placing Nigerian women in migrant reception centres was aiding the trafficking trade as many of the women ended up disappearing from the centres.

The disclosure comes on the heels of the United Kingdom’s sentencing of notorious Nigerian trafficker, Franca Asemota.

Asemota was, on August 4, sentenced to 22 years in prison by a UK court for trafficking young women from Nigeria into Europe to work as prostitutes.

She achieved success in the heinous act by luring mainly orphans from remote villages with the promise of jobs and education.

Asemota was also said to have used witchcraft, threats, juju rituals and sexual violence to ensure that her victims complied with orders before being sold as sex slaves.

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The thriving sex trafficking industry which has been operating between Nigeria and Italy for over three decades has attracted global attention but apparently not enough to stop the increase in the numbers of unaccompanied Nigerian women arriving in Italy on migrant boats.