11 Nigerians arrested for trafficking Nigerian women to Italy and forcing them into prostitution

Eleven Nigerians, eight women and three men, were arrested in Turin, Italy on Friday for allegedly luring Nigerian women to Italy with the promise of a better life and then forcing them into prostitution to pay back the 25,000 euro a head debt they had contracted.

The young women were subjected to voodoo rites before crossing the desert to Libya and the sea to the island of Lampedusa and being moved to migrant reception centres where the gang picked them up, police said.

Nigerian teenagers and young women selling sex is a common sight for motorists in Italy, Ansa English reports.

Working along roadsides and secondary highways in cities big and small, they are a reminder that while Italy has been successful in curbing immigration from Libya, it has largely failed to help a fraction of the migrants trafficked as sex slaves.