Deep inside the forest of Italy lies loads of sex workers who come from Nigeria. According to statistics, there are currently 10,000 to 20,000 Nigerian sex workers in Italy.
Nigerian women are being trafficked to Italy hoping for a better life – but often end up working the streets as prostitutes.
Their plight has been highlighted by Paris-based photographer Elena Perlino, originally from Italy, who began to notice the presence of young African women working on the streets during her commutes from Turin.
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.'
In the early 1980s, Nigeria, Africa and France have a lot of immigrants came to work in Italy.
At first, they just do farming activities in some tomato farm land, however, when the farm closed, in order to survive they have to start making money.
As men remained at work in the fields of the southern regions of Italy where organised crime thrives, and the line between legitimate and illegal enterprises is often blurred, the first Nigerian women began to independently work as prostitutes.
The eerie makeshift atmosphere of the sex camps represents a clear sense that the economic and social crises are degrading the condition of everyday life for a vast range of people in many parts of the world and that the global elites’ answers to these crises cannot provide any solutions, regulations or reprieve in the near future.
For over 20 years, the women of Benin City, a town in the state of Edo in the
south-central part of Nigeria, have traveled to Italy to work in the sex trade. Every year, successful ones recruit younger girls to follow in their steps. Most migrant women, including those who end up in the sex industry, have made a clear decision to leave home and take their chances overseas.
The underground economy attracted immigrant workers providing them jobs without regulations. In a market strongly segmented by gender, age, educational qualifications and population shortages with immigrants, problems are worsened by a political system and public opinion where xenophobia is widespread.
Traffickers demand on average more than 50,000 euros (US $60,000) for travel expenses and accommodation, with the women having to work as prostitutes until their debts are paid off.
As Claudio Magnabosco, former official of the European Parliament, explained: 'The women are still coming: they are younger than ever and arrive here with massive debts to pay off.
'They are forced into prostitution and are now increasingly reinventing themselves as madams or working for the traffickers, also trafficking men, children for adoptions and organs and drug dealing.
'These are the activities of the powerful Nigerian mafia, which is also involved in arms dealing. What has changed is that the madams are now less violent towards the girls, having understood that if they mistreat them the girls run away: the girls forced into the sex industry now get to keep a little of the money they earn and this makes their lives a little bit more tolerable.
'As they cannot find a real way out, they get used to life as prostitutes and prostitution becomes their only source of income.'
But income sex workers are still minimal, sometimes only 10 euros only. Many sex workers from Nigeria have chosen to work in the forest; they will place a mattress in the forest, and to provide sexual services on it.
In this corner of Italy developed European countries, they use their own way, to seek a way out . Photographer Paolo Patrizi they use their own cameras, recording several Nigerian sex workers in the forest.
For over 20 years, the women of Benin City, a town in the state of Edo in the
south-central part of Nigeria, have traveled to Italy to work in the sex trade. Every year, successful ones recruit younger girls to follow in their steps. Most migrant women, including those who end up in the sex industry, have made a clear decision to leave home and take their chances overseas.
But income sex workers are still minimal, sometimes only 10 euros only. Many sex workers from Nigeria have chosen to work in the forest; they will place a mattress in the forest, and to provide sexual services on it.
In this corner of Italy developed European countries, they use their own way, to seek a way out . Photographer Paolo Patrizi they use their own cameras, recording several Nigerian sex workers in the forest.
- See more at: http://ghana-news.adomonline.com/world/2015/May-4th/photos-check-out-nigerian-sex-workers-in-italy.php#sthash.4WneY86H.dpuf
Nigerian women working as prostitutes in the North area of Turin
They are headstrong and ambitious women who migrate in order to escape conflict, persecution, environmental degradation, natural disasters, and other situations that affect their habitat and livelihood.The success of many Italos, as these women are called, is evident in Edo, partly in the form of grand houses built with remittances, therefore for many girls prostitution in Italy has become an entirely acceptable trade.
Italian police review the documents of a Nigerian woman working as a prostitute
A Nigerian woman, working as a prostitute in the countryside, is taken to a police station because she was found without a passport
Credit: Photo by Elena Perlino/REX (3870599ap) Turin 2012
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