Nigeria ‘Sex Slaves’ Held In Mali

Nigerian girls are being forced to work as prostitutes in Mali "slave camps", say officials in Nigeria. The girls, many of them under age, have often been promised jobs in Europe but ended up in brothels, said the government's anti-trafficking agency.

The brothels are run by older Nigerian women who prevent them from leaving and take all their earnings.

The agency said it was working with Malian police to free the girls and help them return to Nigeria. There has been no official comment from the Mali authorities.Nigeria's National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (Naptip) said officials visited Mali in September 2010, to follow up "horrendous reports" from victims, aid workers and clergy in Mali.

They said there were hundreds of brothels, each housing up to 200 girls, run by Nigerian "madams" who force them to work against their will and take their earnings. "We are talking of thousands and thousands of girls," Simon Egede, Executive Secretary of Naptip, told a news conference in Abuja. "We are talking of certainly between 20,000 and about 40, 000," he said, but did not give details of how the figure had been reached.

In a statement, Mr. Egede said girls were "held in bondage for the purposes of forced segxwal exploitation and servitude or slavery-like practices". "The madams control their freedom of movement, where they work, when they work and what they receive," he said. The trade is centered around the capital Bamako and large cities, but the most notorious brothels are in the mining towns of Kayes and Mopti, where the sex workers live in "near slavery condition", said Naptip.

Many of the brothels there also had abortion clinics where foetuses were removed by traditional healers for use in rituals, said Mr. Egede. Most of the girls were reported to have come from Delta and Edo States in Nigeria.

Many were lured with the promise of work in Europe, given fake travel documents and made to swear an oath that they would not tell anyone where they were going.

On arrival in Mali they were told they would have to work as prostitutes to pay off their debts. Prostitution is legal in Mali but not if it involves minors. Naptip said it had also uncovered two major trafficking routes used to transport the women from Nigeria through Benin, Niger or Bukina Faso to Mali.

Mr Egede said Naptip was working with the police in Mali to return the girls to Nigeria safely, shut down the trade and prosecute the traffickers.

The BBC's Caroline Duffield in Lagos said the Edo State region of Nigeria in particular had become notorious for prostitution, with thousands of women and girls leaving every year to make money as sex workers.

But the suggestion that there was an organized ring of older women operating as traffickers - and that they were tricking younger women into leaving - was new, said our correspondent

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Posted: at 2-10-2010 08:39 AM (13 years ago) | Addicted Hero

These Agaracha should be sent home and rehabilitated. They`ve undergone personality change.... What A Wild Wild Gurls. "Ashiwo no be work na management"

Posted: at 2-10-2010 01:09 PM (13 years ago) | Newbie

Wetin dey mail appart from hungry blackkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ABoki and Dogoyaros


Wat A senseless post

Posted: at 2-10-2010 01:28 PM (13 years ago) | Gistmaniac

this is the act of in responsibility or our  50 years of failure as a nation,a nation without mid-day policy, a nation whom source of employment is banking sector, eateries, Church,and hotels and all this are capital consuming no production ,you still cannot blame the parents of those girls that send them on such an errant that was the only self made company they could afford and the girls that embrace their fathers idea was to see that they all did not die of the same diseases.[HUNGRY].
i agree they should take them home ,but what is their social re-integration plans or all they want to do is dump them back in Nigeria ,so they could rest for sometime and prepare to face another country?IT IS A SHAME.

Posted: at 2-10-2010 02:04 PM (13 years ago) | Upcoming

for istant in europ a girl is born, she will be start getting money from the goverment to her mother when she became ten her account num will be given to her from that time, bank will be controll how much she will be useing a month, but in nigeria what are there getting, girls needs pant pampas make up, with out money what can they do, can anyone go out and pick a girl with out make up please tell me, then mr poster please don,t for get to tell us what happen to those girls if then bring then back to nigeria, then mr senegal what are you doing there is that place batter then your conurty goat

Posted: at 2-10-2010 03:22 PM (13 years ago) | Upcoming

these hookers are bringing shame to the country

Posted: at 2-10-2010 03:44 PM (13 years ago) | Upcoming

But why are they returning them to Nigeria? will they give them work to do or they want to bring them to increase the number of the prostitutes we have?

Posted: at 2-10-2010 04:37 PM (13 years ago) | Upcoming

Adding more bad names to the ones we've got already as a country

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Posted: at 2-10-2010 04:50 PM (13 years ago) | Hero

Every time one look around this forum, the government is being blame for everything. We are all responsible for the choices we make in life, and so we should also face the consequences. Now these girls know their qualifications, and I also know that they are smart enough to ask questions, in order to make the decision that will either make or break them. If not upon arriving in Mali and see the condition, they are smart enough to go to the police and ask to be ship back home. No one can force you in prostitution. My mother's cousin attempt it with me when she took me to Cayman Island, I board the next available fight to Jamaica. Changes starts within then it spread out in the community and the wider society. The Government members will change when they also start seeing changes from the society. You see purity can never cover evilness and when the society is pure then the Government members as to be pure too.

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Posted: at 2-10-2010 07:09 PM (13 years ago) | Gistmaniac

SHAME NO DEY OUR FACES...

Posted: at 2-10-2010 07:24 PM (13 years ago) | Upcoming