The Global Center on Human Trafficking
BECKY, 15 – NIGERIA/ITALY
An orphan raised by a foster family, Becky worked as a maid for a wealthy woman in Nigeria, but dreamed of becoming a doctor. Her boss’s daughter lived in Europe and Becky was charmed with stories of a better life there. “She told me, when you come to Europe you’ll have opportunity, you will go to school, everything is going to be OK for you.” After her trafficker paid a ransom to her captors Becky was freed, but her ordeal was far from over. She was pregnant, but says she lost her baby after being given a liquid to drink by her smuggler. There was no time for recovery; she was crammed into a dinghy with four other young women, eventually ending up in a migrant camp in Sicily. She now owed €35,000 to the people who trafficked her to Europe, and they forced her to work the streets to pay it back. She says she was driven to the side of the road and ordered to bring back €200. “If a man sleeps with you the most he can pay is €30. Calculate how many men you have to sleep with to get that,” she says. “You pay, pay, pay, and it never gets finished.” (Source)