Human trafficking

Cursed and Sold
The traffi­cking of Nigerian women isn't a new pheno­menon for the Frankfurt police, but the problem has intensified as the number of female refugees from the country has ballooned. In 2016, the Inter­national Organi­zation for Migration counted some 11,000 Nigerian women who crossed the Medi­terranean to Italy by boat. That number is twice as many as in the previous year and almost eight times as many as in 2014. Some stay in Italy, while others continue their journey to other European countries. Of those who make it as far as Germany, some end up working around Frankfurt's central train station. In this precinct, Daniel Kreuz* and his team of investi­gators from the police's criminal investi­gation department focus on prosti­tution and human traffi­cking:
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime esti­mates that more than 90 percent of the women smuggled from Nigeria to Europe come from Edo state and most of them from Benin City. But why there of all places? And how deeply is Juju anchored in the minds of the people in the region?