21st century slaves (3)
“Sometimes, I take men in abandoned buildings and in deserted market stalls,” she said. For the 20-year-old, it’s the practical thing to do since the government shut down brothels and bars in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
Soon after their demise, precisely July 2017, Nkechi was taken from her home in Ebonyi to Lagos by her late mom’s cousin, Aunt Clara, who promised to send her to school. But rather than send her to school, Aunt Clara apprenticed her to a hairdresser in Shomolu, Lagos. “But I still make house calls…Sometimes, I take customers quickly in a garage or uncompleted building any time of the day. I discovered that the police are always looking out for us at night,” she said.
For her main hustle, Gloria prowls the streets at night for male customers, and makes house calls during the day. For those who can’t receive me at home, we go to the nearest hotel and have sex or wherever they feel comfortable to do it. I charge between CFA20, 000 to CFA25, 000 from night till dawn. I charge between CFA10, 000 to CFA15, 000 for ‘short time’ sessions,” she said.
“I asked her what we were going out to do at night and she told me that we were going out to hustle,” she said. Eventually, she met a Nigerian man that night while she loitered the streets of Abidjan, in tears. “He asked me what was wrong and that why was I outside with my luggage at that time of the night? I shared my travails with him and he offered to link me up with his sister. He took me to her in Yopougon.
Gloria could not summon the nerve to reveal to her mother that she had finally yielded to the lure of prostitution. “She doesn’t know the work I am doing but my brother knows. I have explained everything to him,” she said. Franca is barely four months old in Abidjan although Vivian arrived several months earlier. “We came here to work,” said Vivian and corroborating her, Franca, said, “This place na hustle ground.”Border police receive money from traffickers and turn a blind eye as they smuggle girls out of the country without any questioning.
The 2019 report said there were “continued reports of, and only insufficient efforts to address, government officials’ complicity in human trafficking offences.” The oaths are taken in ceremonies that include body parts from the person on whom the oath is being administered, as well as from one of her relatives, usually her mother or sister. The use of body parts such as fingernails, blood, sweat, teeth and pubic hairs in the care of the voodoo priest creates a sense of fear and an unwillingness to speak out.The inobservance of the pact can “anger the gods” and “jeopardise the victim’s life.
“Some immigration officers receive bribe from smugglers and irregular migrants and let them through. This is wrong. We must work with Interpol and other nations affected by the activities of human traffickers to curtail the evil trade in humans,” she said.
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