Nearly two dozen people suspected of being part of a sex trafficking ring forcing Nigerian women into prostitution in France go on trial Wednesday. Many of them reportedly suffer abuse, slavery and prostitution β both in North Africa and Europe. Dozens of migrants who were imprisoned at a detention camp in Libya have shared their personal testimony of torture and violence at the hands of three men who were arrested on Monday in Messina.
The accused are currently being held in pre-trial detention. Earlier this year, InfoMigrants managed to communicate with an Ivorian minor locked up in a house in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. But then there was silence. Here's an animated account of Mariam's horrific story. Traumatized refugees in need of psychological care have to wait over seven months in Germany before they are granted therapy. The long wait periods were reported in response to an official inquiry submitted by the Left Party Die Linke.
A new report investigates. The Italian authorities have dismantled a Nigerian human trafficking ring that operated between Nigeria, Libya and Italy, forcing women and children to sell their bodies by using voodoo rituals as a form of coercion. She escaped from a living hell: Nadia Murad gives a face to the thousands of Yazidi women who were raped by members of IS.
Her efforts to end sexual violence as a weapon in war earned her the Nobel Peace Prize. In a report published in late July, Save the Children denounced the exploitation of migrant children between Italy and France. The NGO said that minors, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, are being sexually exploited to pay for their safe passage into France from the Italian border.
The use of social media to communicate and make plans has set the ongoing migration crisis apart from previous waves of migration. But there is a dark side to services like Facebook that may harm, rather than help, its users. Thousands of Nigerian migrants are being forced into the sex trade in Italy. These young women come to Europe seeking a better future and are trapped into well organized sex rackets. Please enable JavaScript in your browser for better use of the website.
