Post Script: Trafficker
The text is in bold, the narration in italic and the rest of the lines is normal typing.
02:03:16 Benin City Nigeria
02:22:22 So actually Flossy, what is going to happen actually … huh? You say?
02:30:12 I would like to come…
02:32:23 So actually, you really want to travel?
02:37:17 Yes
02.39:00 So, in which country do you want to go?
02:43:23 Which country?
02:45:19 Any country
02.49:21 I’m not hearing you well
02:50:14 Any country!
02:55:14 If you take her, you will help me and you will also help my daughter.
03.25:05 So after everything, he was trying to kill me
03:25:16 Elizabeth, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
03:28:13 He hold me by my neck
03:33:21 Then he brought out two knives, and start slaughtering me like a goat
03:40:00 I chose to do this!
03:40:09 Irene, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
03: 41:10 For once in my life I chose to do this … Just let me do it!
03:49:13 Why do you want to do it?
03:54:22 Because I can’t get out of it!
03:57:09 My son is in Uganda, they will find him
04:01:05 All around the world, and certainly Africans trafficked into Europe, often are threatened in this way. They are just said: look, you don’t like what we’re doing, but we know where your mother lives, where your child lives, we will kill them if you don’t do what we want you to do.
04:21:03 I don’t want to go to Africa
04:21:12 Tina, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
04:23:16 Yes, I know
04:24:15 We are going to do everything to protect you
04:31:11 Please help me, help me…help me Denmark
04:36:12 I’ve suffered a lot
04:39:11 I told them I am a mother, I can’t do this, I have kids
04:43:00 So now, you don’t know what you are doing, by the time you’ll know its way …
04:49:00 And gradually, believe me, the first week it wasn’t easy, the second week, I was so depressed, very sad, but there was nothing I could do, I had to go back there every day.
04:59:19 And gradually, by doing so, I lost my dignity as a woman, I lost my pride, the woman in me went out and I became wild.
05:13:28 Human trafficking, is the second most profitable organized crime in the world: it’s low risk, high profits…
05:15:16 Andrew Desmond, Anti Trafficking Consultant, Retired Detective, Scotland Yard
05:23:20 According to these national labour organisations in 2013 estimated that the organized crime is worth $ 35 billion per year
05:39:19 And those young girls now, by the time they get their freedom, they become another side of pimps, and it gradually becomes an endemic state in regards to human trafficking.
05:44: 17 Phillip Dogo, Unit of Anti –Trafficking, Police in Benin City, NAPTIP
06:03:12 DANISH DOC PRODUCTION PRESENTS
06:08:00 A FILM BY ANJA DALHOFF
06:11:18 IN COOPERATION WITH MICHELLE MILDWATER
06:16:00 TRAFFICKER
06:22:24 Born Again Church Benin City, Nigeria
06:56:08 Among this swirling mass of people dancing in a trance-like state, is a woman called Wendy. Wendy was trafficked from Nigeria to Italy, where she paid off 15.000 dollars in forced prostitution. Free from debt, she was tempted to become a trafficker, or what is commonly called, a MADAME. Wendy had metamorphosed from victim to perpetrator … from exploited to exploiter.
07:33:18 In 2004, Wendy arrived in Denmark in order to expand her trafficking business, where she combined prostitution with recruiting and transporting girls for sale to brothels in Jylland, owned by a Ugandan Madame.
07:50:21 Wendy, Victim of trafficking and a trafficker herself
07:49:10 10 o’clock, I can go to Ring Road. When I go around, I see the girls: “how are you, you fine lady, you beautiful girl? I’ll just sit there …
07:58:05 In that restaurant … they’ll just sit down here and we relax.
08:02:10 Then, take the mineral water: “Oh, fine, beautiful girl”
08:04:24 Laila is now in Dubai. She has clinic massage in Denmark. Jacob says : Why Danish men that Laila is using ?
08.16:04 So when they bring money out, that man will use his money to buy it, he will use his name to buy it
08.22:22 So we have many massage clinics, owned by Laila
08:28:11 Laila, Fredericia, Copenhagen…not Copenhagen…and other villages to the border
08:35:12 Laila sell houses, selling the clinic massage, then he now goes go to Dubai, and buy a hotel in Dubai
08:47:16 And that hotel is for prostitutes
08:55:05 Hi!
08:56:15 Can I?
08:57:21 Thank you
09:01:09 It’s raining
09:02:19 Too much, too cold
09:04:14 How are you?
09:05:05 I’m fine, and you?
09:07:00 I’m cool
09:07:23 Cool? Yeah?
09:08:23 Yeah
09:09:19 Sandra, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
09:09:18 In Denmark I got involved with a lot of women who were pimps, and most of them are Ugandan, most of these women are Ugandan
09:18:13 They own a lot of clinics everywhere, and they get connected with some Nigerian Women
09:25:03 Most of these women, if they don’t have girls to bring from Uganda, the Nigerian women will provide the girls
09:31:21 Are you from a hot country?
09:33:11 Yeah, I am from Africa
09:34:20 From Africa?
09:35:00 Yeah
09:37:01 Really?
09:37:11 Yeah
09:39:05 So you want to have fun with us?
09:42:05 How many are you here tonight?
09:43:15 Three
09:44:15 The victims of trafficking, who are under the control to pay back the debt that binds them to their slavery.
09:44:22 Andrew Desmond, Anti Trafficking Consultant, Retired Detective, Scotland Yard
09:55:03 In order to source that money, to pay off it, often or can are tempted through their own vulnerability into becoming traffickers themselves, knowing that, the only way that they can earn money, is by the exploitation of others. So, it is not unusual to find victims of trafficking turn to become traffickers themselves.
10:24:10 I know a Nigerian woman who owns a clinic, that I I don’t want to mention, and she has three girls who work in the clinic, and she is the pimp to the girls.
10:25:12 Rosie, victim of trafficking and a trafficker herself
10:41:04 First, I took two girls to the sponsor, told him to help me to take them to Europe, and he told me what he is going to do and how he is going to process it.
10:53:00 First he said that if I want the cheap way, they have to go through the desert.
10:57:18 If I want the fast way, then I have to pay 15.000 Euros to him, that would be by Visa.
11:03:20 But because I am the Madam, I needed it fast, but I know Visa doesn’t cost 15.000.
11.10.19 Because I needed help from him, I said OK, I will pay it, because he knows that the money I will receive from the girls it will be much higher than that.
11:22:13 So that’s why he charged me 15.000 Euro for each person
11:34:08 From my own experience, or having arrested traffickers, and investigated traffickers, and talking to the victims), the profile of a trafficker is one who comes from within the community. Basically, the victim is sourced from within the community, and usually by a friend, an associate, a known person to the family. They gain their confidence. So therefore, the family actually assists the recruiter into handing over their child
12:12:00 Rosie who we met in Copenhagen, desperately wanted to stop in prostitution once her 60.000 euro debt was paid, after 6 long years. But her parents mercilessly manipulated her for money, ringing to her day and night, pressurising her to send money. So, with no other job skills or education, she ended up back in prostitution.
12:56:00 Rosie’s fate mirrors the fate of millions of poor children, who for centuries have been given away or sold by their families, as part of a survival strategy. Her mother sold her as a house slave to a woman in a local village.
13:11:01 I was five years old,
13:13:05 When you first were trafficked?
13:15:11 Yeah
13:16:02 How did that happen?
13:17:15 My father married four wives, he didn’t take care of the children
13:24:00 Then they adopt me to an old woman, very old woman, her daughter lived in Italy
13:30:17 She said she wants to take me to Europe
13:33:20 I went there, to the village, to stay with the woman, and her child from Italy, I was waiting that the would come and take me to Europe. She did not.
13:43:00 I was suffering there, going to the farm, some days there was no food. Sometimes food, sometimes, nothing
13:52:00 We would go to the farm every day, with the old woman. Staying with her meant no school
13:58:05 This is the school, and there are no desks, so we need a proper look over it
14:06:08 The teachers, they are not coming, they are not teaching fine.
14:09:03 So, we have a lot of students here, but there are no chairs, no desks, nothing
14:25:13 They were already out of school, they were not going to school anymore, because they were done with the 8th class and they were not proceeding to secondary school.
14:37:05 So one day I went to school, and when I came back in the evening, they were not there.
14:37:04 Irene, Victim of Trafficking, Kenya
14:46:10 They did not come back, until very late
14:50:13 When I asked my stepmother, she said they have gone to work in Uganda, and they are not coming back today
15:04:00 The next thing she told me was not to tell anybody about them going to work in Uganda
15:09:13 Stop for a while now
15:11:24 Michelle Mildwater, Researcher and expert in trafficking
15:15:00 You are very brave,
15:17:00 Just this part of your story is so deeply moving Irene
15:22:07 I did everything she asked me to … and she sold me
15:28:08 And she sold you, I know
15:33:10 Yeah, she was a wicked woman
15:43:02 Irene’s stepmother had a thriving business, picking up abandoned street children and keeping them as house slaves, until they could be sold on to willing buyers. She ran a small bar, on the border between Kenya and Uganda, and she sold Irene to a group of men who wanted a young virgin to exploit sexually and therefore offered a very high price for her.
16:07:17 This night was a terrible night
16:11:20 Most people who are trafficked are young, healthy, and usually rather smart, young people
16:12:05 Kevin Bales, Professor of Contemporary Slavery, Wilberforce Institute
16:19:07 We were divided in two groups of five girls, and taken to different tents
16:29:13 They are trafficked, they are turned from free people seeking opportunity to enslaved people making money for others, for criminals
16:37:04 And for every group of five girls there were five men
16:44:22 That can be a very traumatic transition, and to some people, that takes them to a point where they can barely function at all. The trauma, of both brutality, physical assault, sexual assault, and that transition, leaves them pretty much helpless, almost socially, mentally paralysed
17:06:08 They were sleeping with us in circles, like they were competing, or something like that, I don’t know
17:16:15 They begin to identify with the context in which they are living. They begin to adapt to the criminal element in which they are now exploited
17:25:10 Each man with one girl, and then, when they’re finished another one comes, they just move on like that, in a circle…it nearly happened the whole night.
17:39:22 They can reduce the pain they are suffering if they become more like the people that are causing them that pain. And that is a well-known psychological adaptation to situations of great pain and stress.
17:55:16 For the first time in my life I drank raw blood…I don’t know from which animal
18:02:21 A person who’s been trafficked and enslaved, will sometimes reach that point of turning and becoming someone who would traffic and enslave themselves.
18:13:05 Maria, Victim of Trafficking, Nigeria
18:13:06 Before we get to Morocco, we had to walk through the desert
18:20:00 How long did it take you to go through the desert?
18:23:20 8 months
18:25:16 The beatings came after, with the commanders, the ones who belonged to their squad, the ones that if you did not obeyed, they would beat you
18:35:06 But for the first three days they raped us…the first two nights …the third day we were sworn in
18:42:06 At this point, nobody beat us. The only problem was that we would repeat that until the colonel will be satisfied that you have said it right.
18:50:21 Maria, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
18:51:20 From Nigeria to Morocco, it’s a long journey and you have to walk. That’s why a lot of people died, they lost their strength.
19:01:14 I told him that I wanted him to kill me now that I’m not going to do any of the things you asked me, so he better kill me
19:10:03 Irene became pregnant and the men decided to get rid of her. Traumatized, she wandered from place to place and was taken in by a man and woman who deceived her into thinking they were going to help her. After she gave birth, they told her that they could arrange work and a new life for her and her child in Europe. She agreed and was sent to Copenhagen, where she was forced to work in prostitution. They threatened otherwise to kill her child who remained in Uganda.
19:42:20 Two-year process.
19:44:03 You were just seventeen when you started?
19:44:12 Queen , Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
19:45:23 Yeah
19:46:20 And by the time you got to the shores of Morocco, you must have seen a lot of terrible things over there
19:55:10 Oh my God, I can’t really say…I just can’t say
20:01:05 I can understand
20:04:18 Some people would die, some pregnant, they just lost strengths, no water to drink, too much sun
20:15:11 Then the girls, some of them they were pregnant, some of them didn’t have eyes, because the Arabs used knives to remove one of the eyes so they couldn’t see…some had only one hand
20:31:11 Gradually, we had large influx of young girls going to Europe, through Morocco in Africa, Italy, Spain and then off
20:32:05 Phillip Dogo, Unit of Anti-Trafficking, Police in Benin City, NAPTIP
21:32:09 Praise the Lord, Praise the living God!
21:32:14 Wendy’s Deliverance, Day 1: Testimony
21:38:00 My testimony goes like this: For years ago I came to this ministry, When I met the general Vasi, he told me that maybe I should not go back. I told him that I had a sponsor that did not pay me. So that money is blood money, I should not go back again.
21:56:05 I said I made millions of money but I cannot even see the money. He said that because that is blood money, I should not touch that money again; I should not ask for that money again, I should forget about those people over there, and I said OK.
22:10:06 The first bad spirit was smoking, I would normally smoke a pack of cigarettes in Europe, so when I come here with that frustration, I was still smoking.
22:21:07 So he told me that I should fear God and I should not go back again then those problems would stop.
22:30:11 There was something that was working in my body, and is now stopped. Wanting a cigarette stopped after three days.
22:36:23 Today, Wendy is giving her testimony. In this testimony, she asks for forgiveness for her sins, publicly repenting her past life. This is the first step in a series of church rituals, over a period of many days, in which Wendy is delivered and transformed, from an idol worshipper, a prostitute and a trafficker to becoming a born again, baptized church member.
23:18:08 Wendy was trafficked to Italy, back in the early 1990s. The economic upswing meant she paid off fast. She wanted to work less in prostitution and had learnt all the dirty tricks of this lucrative trade. Who to target, how to recruit, how to transport and how to bind her victims with a juju oath, so they would keep her identity secret and be easy to control and exploit.
23:45:15 You look so different. I remember when I met you first. Very, very, very, different.
23:54:01 When my mother died, then somebody said, they wanted to traffic me.
24:00:19 At that time I said I want to work, in a factory,
24:04:04 So when I got there, it was not a factory, it was working in prostitution
24:08:20 I didn’t want to be a prostitute, just because I had no other possibilities.
24:18:04 To be a prostitute is very hard. You meet drunkards. A lot of people that disturb, you meet a lot of criminals, so it’s not that one is happy to be in prostitution.
24:32:21 The common profile issue between traffickers and the victims is their vulnerability, their wanting. The traffickers who want to make a profit. IT’s the vulnerability of the victims who want to get a better life. The art of a good trafficker, recruiter is that they can smell, discover, what their victims’ vulnerability is and they, having the ability to exploit it…it’s like a lion out in the bush that can smell a wounded animal. That is what a trafficker, a recruiter is very good at, smelling out a victim’s vulnerability.
24:34:00 Andrew Desmond, Anti Trafficking Consultant, Retired Detective, Scotland Yard
25:13:05 These women are trafficked because they are poor, so their poverty is joy to their traffickers.
25:27:08 and they become miserable in Europe, but their misery is a joy to their clients, because they can afford them anywhere at any prize.
25:50:11 When Rosie arrived in Spain she was still a child of 16. But due to starvation, she looked much younger. Her Madam exploited this and trained her to sexually satisfy men, renting her out mainly to paedophiles.
26:07:16 And Sugar Daddy is a very, very old man, and he was sick, he couldn’t even stand up and walk on his own.
26:17:04 And I had sex with him, every time. He paid my madam, 50 Euros every day
26:25:21 And then, after a while, she took you to a big club
26:30:00 Yeah, he took me to a big club, where I could see a lot of men, and then I knew it would not only be one man
26:37:09 How many men?
26:38:14 A day,
26:40:24 When I was lucky, 10
26:43:17 When you go with three or five or ten men to make love to you, they have different spirits, they are different characters, different blood. So you are now mixed with different kinds of blood. A lot of blood has come into your life
26:45:07 Wendy, Victim of trafficking and a trafficker herself
27:00:13 Some don’t want sex, they just give me the money and look at me, touch me and go away. Some of them, they fuck until they die.
27:09:13 In Nigeria when they mention, 45.000 Euros/Dollars, you don’t understand how big it is
27:11:14 Lillian, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
27:19:06 The traffickers are increasing the debt bondage that the victims are having to pay. In 2008, the victims may be debt-bondage to about 40.000 Euros. Currently, the victims I have worked with, they are having now 70.000 Euros.
27:41:13 Queen , Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
27:41:15 I’ve paid 45.000
27:47:08 When I was in Nigeria, I’ve always had a dream of coming to Europe, but when I came to Europe, I saw that it was not what I thought. It’s not like my dream looked like, what I found in Europe.
27:49:09 Lillian, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
28:02:12 I asked her, why do they do these things, like prostitutes, and I said OK. But I don’t have any choice
28:10:12 They all come to Europe to be prostitutes, just to put food on the table for their families
28:17:11 : Rosemary, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
28:15:06 I was a small girl when I came to Europe, then my mother put stockings in my bra, to make my breasts bigger, but when I took my clothes off there was nothing. And the men would ask: Why don’t you have breasts?
28:30:10 They would like to fuck for 5 Euros just to show that they send it their parents, so they can pay school fees and house rent to survive. They have to help their brother or sister to go to school, because they want them to go to school, they don’t want them to live their life they’re living.
28:51:11 When I got to the place, I asked: is this the place to work? They said Yes. I said: On the street? Not a club house, nothing? They said No.
29:00:08 I was standing with my trousers and they said: Pull off your trousers! And I said why? Then just said: Oh, you’re just a newcomer, I understand
29:07:20 So they told me: Pull of you trousers, you will not work, nobody will buy you!
29:11:05 So I pull of my trousers, but I couldn’t stand it, I run and I hid myself at the back of the trash bins because I was so ashamed
29:20:19 After two years of doing prostitution, and going to stand on the road during the winter, with the snow, I was too terrible for me, so it started to affect me and I started to become weak
29:22:18 Marciela, Victim of trafficking, Kenya
29:35:00 If it was to fuck with a man, that was very difficult, because my spirit wasn’t happy, and that made it difficult…sleeping with a man that my heard doesn’t want.
29:49:15 I was even dressing worse I could just go on the street with a G-string…it’s a terrible experience; I don’t really want to remember it
30:01:10 Yeah, and I respect that
30:03:07 I would just be using the money … “He’s going to pay me, he’s going to pay me”, with these words in the heart. When the man would finish, I would say: Oh, thank God it’s finished, now give me my money
30:22:01 So, the motivation of a trafficker is primary, the one thing is greed and money because you’re only going to be judged as being a success in life is it if you have worth, rich clothes, expensive watches, and therefore, people will look up to you and being able to say, “that person is a success”.
30:22:24 Andrew Desmond, Anti Trafficking Consultant, Retired Detective, Scotland Yard
30:44:24 In Nigeria, you only seem to have been worth, if you have money. You are judged by your money, it doesn’t matter where the money comes from, it doesn’t matter who you walk over, what you do. That’s why unfortunately it’s so much corruption within the system. It doesn’t matter how you obtain the money as long as you have the money.
31:18:22 Wendy started to attend a local Christian Deliverance Church where they believe the evil spirits that possess people can be driven out, if the old religion is totally renounced. Here in this ceremony, the objects representing a multitude of gods and demi-gods are destroyed. Wendy gives up all ties to the religion of her ancestors.
31:45:22 This one, is a small calabas, they use this one to … maybe…
31:52:07 That one is the god of iron, We’ll call it Ogun, in our language.
32:00:23 This one, is the god of thunder
32:05:13 This one, the river good is from the water, from the river. So, in our language we will call it Olokun
32:16:16 During her Deliverance, Wendy is fasting for 3 days
32:22:22 The time I was in the ward, I didn’t know that fasting and prayer can wipe away a problem, so when I came to this ministry, I was smoking, I was having the spirit of fear, but after three days fasting, that spirit now died.
32:43:18 Wendy’s Deliverance, Day 2: Burning the old religion
32:54:03 Now you can see, I touch it with my hand, Nothing! There is nothing for you to be afraid of!
33:02:06 I’m telling you now, because the power of God is in me, that is the reason why I can handle them without fear
33:09:18 Pick that up! Kill it!
33:17:17 These are the dirty things that were living with you in your home, you hear what I’m telling you? What you suffered before, you can’t suffer it again. Praise the name of the Lord! I’m delivered by the Lord.
34:16:17 Wendy’s Deliverance, Day 3: Baptism
34:16:05 Come, come closer to baptise
34:23:15 Normally, after your Deliverance, you must come for baptism … Praise the name of the Lord!
34:35:15 …Go Ye, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen!
34:52:18 Congratulations! Praise the name of the living God!
35:01: Now, you are a new person, Praise the name of the living God! So a new name will be given to you all from today on.
35:09:17 you were? Your former name?
35:12:06 Wendy.
35:13:05 You are now Patience. Patience is another name of God. Praise the name of the living God!
35:19:19 Your new name is Patience, may God bless you, and you will continue in your efficiency with God, in the Jesus’s name.
35:34:16 I went to the village to visit my mother, and I saw people running after me: Please, would you like to take my child to Europe?
35:40:10 Rosie, Victim of trafficking and a trafficker herself
36:00:19 Are there many women in this area who have gone to Europe?
36:03:09 Yeah
36:04:10 and that’s very common here?
36:05:18 Yeah, very common
36:11:22 Then I said: do you know is very dangerous to go to Europe?
36:17:12 I really know they are suffering, they are living the kind of life I lived before when I was abducted
36:26:00 Nothing to eat, no education, nothing
36:31:14 What do they do in Europe?
36:33:09 They work!
36:35:07 what kind of work do they have?
36:37:16 Hairdressing, Fashion-design
36:43:17 Then my mother called me: Please help them, remember what you went through when you were a baby, so is the way they are living their life too.
36:57:23 I take two girls first to Europe, not through the desert, I paid 15.000 Euros for each person
37:11:17 As long as they travel to a “white” country, we’ll be happy.
37:18:01 Do you not worry about your women going off to a foreign land, how they get there,
37:24:05 I don’t worry
37:25:02 You don’t worry?
37:25:16 No
37:26:09 So if your daughter, if someone comes and says they can help your daughter to go to a foreign land, you’ll be happy
37:32:09 Yeah
37:33:05 That is why human trafficking won’t stop, because everybody have passed through a lot, and they also want to become a Madam
37:34:21 Lillian, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
37:57:17 Rosie, Victim of trafficking and a trafficker herself
37:57:19 My first girl, she didn’t know anything, then I taught her how to do it. I also put a long movie, a sex movie, when we were in the room so she could learn from it.
38:11:15 They we went to the streets, she showed me how to walk in the streets, to fuck someone, to have money. But it all looked so strange to me because I don’t know how they do it, I never did these things in my life
38:20:08 Rosemary, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
38:25:17 I was very rich, because I had 10 girls, 45.000 each, so I was very rich
38:32:11 When they don’t have a nice shape, I send them to the streets
38:41:02 When they have a nice shape, I send them to the club
38:45:18 I met a man in Copenhagen.
38:48:10 Elizabeth, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
38:50:20 So we took a Taxi from Copenhagen to his house.
39:01:00 Some of my girls they have a nice shape but they are still in the streets because I ask them: Where do you want to work? You want to work in a club or in the streets? She said: I make more money in the street, theyn she goes to the street
39:13:16 I’m very scared to go back to the street, because of the beating, I was very shocked
39:22:04 So after everything he was trying to kill me, he hold me of my neck, he wanted to kill me but he couldn’t
39:24:03 Elizabeth , Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
39:31:05 In Denmark , is very dangerous for a girl, because a man can take her with the car, far away from the city…he can kill her, or kidnap her, or lock her in a room, because there is no place for her to take the man in.
39:32:05 Rosie Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
39:51:00 Then he brought two knives and started slaughtering me like a goat, and everywhere was full of blood
39:52:14 Elizabeth , Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
40:03:12 I spent 2 days in the hospital, then the police came and took me to a place and interviewed me and they said that I am arrested for coming into this country without documents and took me to the prison
40:21:02 The traffickers use many methods of control, in order to prevent their victims from running away or going to the police and making sure that they pay back the money that they owed.
40:21:08 Andrew Desmond, Anti Trafficking Consultant, Retired Detective, Scotland Yard
40:32:21 Usually it’s in the form of physical direct abuse. Usually the physical abuse is to show to the other victims that if they disobey or run away, that is what is going to happen…so they actually make the victim an example to the others.
40:51:02 I tried once, I ran once, then the family of the Madam, they went to my family, they beat up my family, I even lost my dad in the incident. They killed my daddy.
40:51:24: Maureen, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
41:03:18 Blessing, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
41:02:03 He beat me a lot, all over my body, he beat me a lot
41:10:13 Princess, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
41:11:15 He said: If I bite your mouth, you will not speak again, you will not meet the police and talk, that’s why he bite my mouth
41:20:02 How long were you kept as a slave?
41:23:00 Blessing, Victim of Trafficking, Nigeria
41:23:06 Almost 6 to 7 years. Because, if I don’t work good, that is why they treat me like a slave.
41:37:17 When I reached home, my Madam asked me, “where is my money that you worked to day?” I told her that because I didn’t work that day, I had no money, and she put chilli in the bath and they told me to go in. I go in, they beat me and used all the chilli to rob me
41:39:12 Maria, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
41:56:08 In Spain last year, the woman used an iron, plugged it in, and used it to burn the back of a girl
41:57:20 Wendy, now Patience, Victim of trafficking and a trafficker herself
42:12:08 For a Madam to make a lot of money, she has to be very strong, and have a lot of witches around her
42:24:12 She broke the bottle on the floor and asked me to kneel on it. So I kneel on the broken bottle and she started flogging me all over my body.
42:34:09 If I knew the police would not arrest me, yes, I would have reported it to the police, because it’s really dangerous for the girls
42:35:22 Lillian, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
42:45:15 I will never do it, because I don’t want to lose my life, and that of my family. Because my mom is all I have, I love her with my life.
42:47:22 Maureen, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
42:57:15 To fight with the girls’ family, and every time you have to send people to the girls houses in Nigeria, use their father, to show them that they will get hurt
43:14:16 Traffickers often disorientate their victims, by forcing them to move to a new location and also to ensure maximum profits with a new clientele. Irene suddenly disappeared, but we managed to locate her in a flat in Jylland. Unfortunately, immediately after this last encounter, she disappeared.
43:36:20 Take the opportunity now to run away Irene, these people are brainwashing you, and they are trying to move you to another country
43:45:22 It’s so dangerous for you to stay here with these traffickers
43:49:16 When I tried to stop, I was making a call home and they told me my son disappeared. Why my son disappeared? But they kidnaped my son because I refused to pay the debts.
43:51:16 Marciela, Victim of trafficking, Kenya
44:03:10 Irene, otherwise I have to call the police to get all these criminal people
44:09:15 No! Call the police and they’ll arrest me, it’s OK but I’m not going, I’m not going,
44:16:06 Why are you not going?
44:18:21 Because it doesn’t make any difference, how many times have I tried
44:22:12 They kidnapped me, they took me away from my parents, and they shoot my mom and my dad
44:28:15 You have to understand that now you have a chance to get away, yes, come on with me
44:34:20 No Anja, my son is in Uganda, they will find him, they fill find everybody, you don’t understand.
44:44:12 Apart from the physical violence used to coerce their victims and their families, West African traffickers are notorious for using spiritual methods to control and manipulate. These rituals contain promises of protection and good luck, but also have a darker and more sinister side.
46:11:24 Bruno Moens, Expert on human trafficking, Belgium
46:12:01 The traditional religion which is deeply embedded in West African society, so this “Juju”, or “Voodoo”, “traditional religion” as they prefer to call it, is also used as a coercion mechanism in this whole trafficking process.
46:35:20 What you see in most cases, the girls are taken to shrines, sometimes they have to perform the ritual naked, they take pubic hair, and they take sometimes some blood, they take the hair under their arm, some hair from the head as well, with which they then do all sorts of rituals, the girls have to swear things, repeat the juju priest.
47:08:16 Then they take my pants, and my hair…
47:09:19 Voice of Tina, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
47:16:07 They took your hair from …
47:17:18 and nails from my fingers…
47:20:03 when I got to that place, I was told that if I go to work and I will not send money to my parents or call my parents and If I say I want to call the police, she’ll tell the Juju man to kill me.
47:47:16 We have shrines in Benin, and the shrines have been traditional institutions. They are meant for justice, but with development and advancement of crime and criminality, they use those shrines, that were traditionally meant for justice, in order to perpetrate crime with it.
48:05:11 Phillip Dogo, Unit of Anti –Trafficking, Police in Benin City, NAPTIP
48:14:20 So, when the traffickers recruit these victims, they take these victims to these shrines for oath-taking. Oath-taking is done under bondage. They shave a part of your hair, hairs from your private parts, your pubic hairs, and cut a part of your body, take a bit of blood, and now subject you into a psychological belief.
48:47:23 They used it to take the blood from me
48:50:10 So when you were making the oath they took…they made a big cut on you there
49:16:00 I have 10 girls and only 7 have paid me, the other 3 didn’t. So, the 3 girls that don’t pay me, their life is very bad.
49:19:23 Rosie, Victim of trafficking, and a trafficker herself
49:26:05 One, she lost her mother and her sister, because the Ayelala
49:31:10 The Ayelala is the Juju priest, the person that administers the oath on the victims. Their shrines were made for justice back in the time, but because of crime and criminality, some people decided to use the shrines for their own personal, selfish, egocentric interest
49:57:11 Now, another thing about this Juju or Voodoo, is that is very, very, little understood in the North. Police think it’s a joke very often, they think it’s kind of odd that anyone would even discuss such a thing, they don’t understand how a person could in fact be controlled through this magical thinking, this kind of religious magical thinking
50:05:00 Kevin Bales, Professor of Contemporary Slavery, Wilberforce Institute
50:25:09 Letting you know that if you contravene the promises you have taken in the shrine, of not paying your Madam, that is your pimp, a certain amount of money by the time you get to Europe, you may likely get mad or probably die
50:46:07 So it is both protection for the girl?
50:48:19 Yes
50:49:14 And is it also that she can earn good money?
50:52:08 Yes, earn good money
50:55:00 And can she then pay her sponsor with the good money?
50:58:02 Yes
50:58:11 And only when she’s paid the money to her sponsor can she be free.
51:03:10 Be free
51:04:05 What would happen then if she comes to Europe and says: it is too much money and I do not want to pay
51:10:15 If she does not pay, she will be punished, if she pays, there’s no punishment, she’s free.
51:17:12 If you don’t pay, this Juju will kill you, will disturb you, but when you pay, this Juju will not disturb you.
51:19:18 Patience - Formerly known as Wendy, Victim of trafficking and a trafficker herself.
51:24:21 Because that girl has belief, then that spiritual fear will be called inside her. If she doesn’t pay, the Juju is used to kill her, but there is nothing there
51:39:19 Tina, Victim of trafficking, Nigeria
51:39:19 If I want to call the police for her, the Juju will kill me
51:55:01 We could stop for a moment
51:58:16 I don’t want to go to Africa
52:00:21 Yeah, I know
52:02:04 We’re going to do everything to protect you
52:05:24 Please, please, help me, help me, please help me Denmark
52:10:05 This makes it very difficult for women in particular who have been trafficked from Africa to Europe, to become effective witnesses on their own behalf. If you are terrified that opening your mouth is going to bring harm to your soul, to your family, to your children, it becomes very difficult
52:32:06 Marciela, Victim of trafficking, Kenya
52:30:14 In Denmark, there is no protection for the victims of human trafficking, even if they want to testify against their traffickers
52:40:23 Even if you told them who your trafficker is, they’ll take you back home and deport you. They don’t provide any protection, they don’t give you residence to stay here, even if you have a child back home, they will not even know, or they don’t even want to protect your child back home.
53:04:03 If they could provide me, If I could be a witness, if they would allow me to stay in Denmark, bring my son to stay with me, then I could feel safe, but I’m not safe, that’s why I can’t say who brought me in Denmark
53:30:15 Wendy was renamed Patience during the baptism ceremony. After she was delivered the pastor instructed Patience to find vulnerable women and recruit them into his rapidly, expanding church. Today Patience is on her way to council Sara who has been offered a job in Greece.
53:53:22 Those friends that is calling you, you call them so I can speak with them
54:00:03 Yeah It’s me, Sara, the girl that is calling you from Nigeria
54:06:23 Please, my sister said that I should not come, that you are not telling me the truth, she said that there is no work there in Greece, that I am coming to do prostitution. She said that I should not come.
54:21:12 Stop calling me! I said that there is no work there!
54:26:08 There’s widespread prostitution throughout Benin City. Patience knows exactly how to recruit people and targets these vulnerable girls. There are a multitude of factors that push women into forced prostitution. Today Patience is talking to a teenage orphan girl who was found starving on the streets and taken by the owner to his brothel. The other girl’s family sold her to the brothel, in order to raise money to pay a debt to their landowner.
55:04:02 The brothel by night
55:36:10 One of the ways that we know works well to keep people from being drawn into situations of trafficking, is to do the fundamental and basic education at the grassroots level, in the country of origin.
55:52:11 Good day/Good day
55:54:24 I am the police officer -What happened is that, I came with this …
56:00:16 Today, a policeman who is also a member of the Deliverance Church, introduces Patience to a young girl called Daniella. She sought her help because she is vulnerable and frightened.
56:14:24 My auntie wants me to travel abroad with her, you know, to do some job. But I don’t know. I asked questions, about what I was going to do abroad. So, she said, when I get there I will know the kind of work I will do there
56:37:12 And she refused to tell her. According to her, there are 14 girls, including her. So she suspects that it must be prostitution, because they are so many. That is my only guess, what I am suspecting. I beg you to help her.
56:53:10 To combat human trafficking, it’s got to be a multi-agency approach. Therefore, from immigration, police, NGOs and also the courts, actually they’ve got to join together and work by exchanging information.
57:16:10 Patience advices Daniella to move to her grandmother who has agreed that she can live with her in order to escape the immediate pressure from her auntie, to send her to Europe.
57:28:09 This is my granny
57:33:24 I want to say a very big thank you for helping
57:36:14 Is the help of God
57:39:10 At least I thank god I’m OK, I am schooling
57:42:18 Where those who have themselves been trafficked and those who have recovered sufficiently from the trauma of that, that they feel strong enough to go and speak about it, if they speak, in their home areas, in their own language, in the local language, from the same cultural view point, it has enormous power.
58:01:14 The only way I know I can prevent this, is if the parents dismiss this belief that money is everything , and if you talk to your children, educate them … because money is not everything
58:17:21 We’ve seen in some rural areas around the world, dramatic declines in the number of those people who were trafficked out, simply because when the traffickers show up, and sing this beautiful song of opportunity and golden streets, they are able to say: it’s a lie, we know that now, and it’s time for you to leave.
58:45:18 Modern day slavery –trafficking- has emerged in history as a many-headed monster. If we are to destroy this monster we must understand that many of these heads are the consumers globally, who greedily devour the flesh of millions of human beings trapped in the web of trafficking.
We therefore are all culpable and have to take responsibility for our past and present role in this appalling violation of human rights, and take action.
58:45:18 – 59:18:10 Modern day slavery – Trafficking - has emerged in history as a many-headed monster. If we are to destroy this monster we must understand that many of these heads are the consumers globally, who greedily devour the flesh of millions of human beings trapped in the web of trafficking.
We therefore are all culpable and have to take responsibility for our past and present role in this appalling violation of human rights, and take action.
59:24:24 Director, Camera and Producer, ANJA DALHOFF
59:27:24 Research, Interviews and Narration, MICHELLE MILDWATER
59:31:07 Rough-cut, AHMAD JALALI FARAHANI
59:34:19 Edit, Colorgrade and Graphics, JOHS AARUP
59:37:09 Composer and Music, POVL KRISTIAN
59:40:05 Audio-design, HAMID HAGH
59:43:06 Consultant, Audio-design, HENRIK GARNOV
59:46:06 Editor, DR, METTE HOFFMANN
59:49:05 Subtitles, JONATHAN SYDENHAM
59:52:19 – 01:00:02:06
Thanks to:
THE PARTICIPATING TRAFFICKED WOMEN
KEVIN BALES
ANNE BRANDT CHRISTENSEN
ANDREW DESMOND
PHILLIP DOGO
CENTRE AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING
HOPEHOW
This film was supported by
DR
MINISTRY of FOREIGN AFFAIRS of DENMARK
THE GRANT of PAULA & AXEL NISSEN
For security reasons the names of the trafficked women have been changed.
01:00:01:02 Production DANISH DOC PRODUCTION ©2015