Sex slaves for sale

The market for teenage sex is booming in Europe. And some Africans are at the heart of it. Cecilia Elberse-Kiggundu and our correspondents in Amsterdam report on how African teenage girls, mainly Nigerian, are smuggled into sex slavery in The Netherlands right under the noses of the Dutch authorities.

Highly organised Dutch criminals and syndicates in collaboration with some Africans, are tricking and trapping young African teenage girls into The Netherlands' booming prostitution and pornography industry.

The problem came to light in 1996 in the southern city of Eindhoven when the centre for young asylum seekers (unaccompanied minors) first raised the alarm. The situation has since spun out of control.

Between 1993-96 over 150 girls disappeared from the Centre, most of them Nigerians. According to the Central Organisation of Asylum Seekers more than 400 girls from Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan have disappeared from asylum centres in the past three years. The disappearances were suspected to be linked to the teenage prostitution industry in the Netherlands.

This prompted the Dutch NGO, Terre des Hommes Nederland, to commission the Nigerian Democratic Movement in the Netherlands (NDMN) to carry out an investigation into the disappearance of the girls. They came up with the most disturbing news: the girls had become sex slaves in the country's red-light districts.

Further investigations revealed that at least 400 girls aged under 18, mostly Nigerian, had been smuggled into the country and forced into prostitution since 1996.

In the Netherlands, the demand for these girls is particularly high and is growing. To match the demand, organised gangs and racketeers have turned to their foreign contacts (mainly West Africans) to supply these girls.

Most of the girls are purchased from Nigeria through dealers who sometimes are ex-prostitutes themselves (referred to as 'madams',) or Nigerians drug dealers, self-made business men/women and lots of ex-convicts. These criminal groups supply girls across Europe to centres in the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Germany, Cyprus and Switzerland.

The innocent girls are lured into the ring by promises of better jobs and good life in Europe. They come mainly from poor families with no or little education. The dealers prefer young girls, not only because of the demand for them in Europe, but also because they are easy to manipulate and would engage in any type of sex the Europeans demanded of them.

The fate of the girls is decided on the day of their recruitment. Through local contacts in Nigeria, the girls are recruited based on their beauty and age, and then sold to a dealer for 10,000 Naira (roughly 100 US dollars). The dealers convince the victims and their parents that a life of bliss and good jobs await them in Europe.

Before leaving for Europe, the girls are subjected to voodoo rituals to ostensibly protect them from misfortune in Europe, but in reality it is to instil fear into them and make them even more submissive.

Once in Europe, the girls are forced to sign contracts promising to make as much as $100,000 from prostitution of which 90% goes to the trafficker who smuggled them into Europe. In most cases, they are warned that their lives and those of their relatives back home in Africa would be in danger if they did not honour the contracts. Thus frightened out of their wits, the girls virtually become sex slaves. They are raped, forced to have unprotected sex, take part in sexual experiments and perform vulgar acts including having sex with dogs which their clients put on film and sell for a profit.

To get the girls into Europe, the traffickers use many ways - the most common is borrowing passports from Dutch-Ghanaian, Dutch-Surinamian or any Dutch-African teenage girls in The Netherlands. The trick is to recruit look-alike girls who fit the photos on the passports.

Another way is buying visas directly in Lagos. According to the NDMN, dealers pay about $3,000 for a tourist or transit visa. The visa users do not have to go to the embassy in person. As soon as the money changes hands, the visas are issued. The dealer (could be female or male) and his/her new recruits embark on the journey to Europe. The safest route is through Ghana, Togo and C&eocirc;te d'Ivoire; then to Spain, France or Portugal and by either train or plane to The Netherlands.

Those of them who arrive at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport usually have their passports taken away on the plane by the dealers. They then land at Schipol without travel documents and make up stories (following the dealers' script) that they are fleeing from conflicts in their home countries and want to seek political asylum. Because of their tender ages and travelling unaccompanied by adults, the immigration authorities send them straight to special asylum centres for minors while they investigate their stories.

Once at the centres, the girls get reunited with the dealers. Soon they are confronted with the harsh realities of their new lives and broken promises. In no time, they disappear from the asylum centres into the den of the dealers where they are taken through rudimentary "training" in prostitution and weird sexual acts. Pornographic footage of bizarre sex acts are shown to them as part of the mental preparation for the "job" ahead. Their first "workplaces" are usually in brothels, on the streets , private bars, private homes and restaurants.

Then comes pay day. They pay a percentage of their weekly earnings to the "Madams" or the owner of their "workplaces".

If they refuse to "work", they are usually beaten up, abused verbally and physically. Some are re-sold to "Madams" and brothels in other European countries after gaining the necessary experience for the "job". According to NDMN estimates, the girls are asked to pay back between $20,000 and $50,000 to the dealers.

The majority of these girls stay silent. Those who brave the storm and speak out are threatened with death. Since April this year, seven people have been jailed for smuggling some of the girls into The Netherlands.

The Dutch government itself has come under criticism recently for failing to order detailed investigations into the disappearance of the girls from the asylum centres.

The Netherlands has a reputation for being liberal on the "sex trade" which is due to be legalised soon. Anyone visiting Amsterdam can pick up a brochure on "sex services" in the city from kiosks.

When the story of the African teenage prostitutes broke in late September, the Dutch government (more out of embarrassment than a rethink of its liberal attitude to prostitution), despatched investigators to Lagos to look into the situation. As New African went to press, the outcome of the investigation had not been made public.