The Calvary of Nigerians victims of trafficking in France | EUROtoday

QUeen needed to depart Nigeria. It was his selection, firstly. But she shortly regretted her choice. It was “a brother” who put him on this street, promising him a way forward for hairdresser in Europe. He introduced him with a “mama” – certainly one of these ladies on the head of prostitution networks.

Queen isn’t his actual identify – too harmful to disclose it. She says she is in peril, and lives in hypervigilance. For years, Queen has collaborated with the ladies’s bus, an affiliation that intervenes day and night time in Île-de-France to assist, with out judgment, prostitutes, particularly on social and sanitary ranges, and of their outing path … which made his face acquainted in sure circles. She claims to have left the sidewalk in 2015, and proudly brandishes her ten -year residence allow: she obtained the fitting of asylum and she or he turned a social employee.

Queen’s disarray

It is 6 p.m., Porte de la Chapelle, this month of January is freezing, and the night time has already fallen. Queen is put in on the terrace of a kebab, on the alert. On a number of events, her gaze will get up, then she says that she is afraid of an attacker. She instructions a soda, however doesn’t drink it. She whispers for herself: “If it is found, it’s poisoned …” Confession begins, however the sentences collide, there are too many issues to say, and she or he doesn’t imply an excessive amount of.

Queen left her mom’s 3 -year -old son when she left. They offered her with a false residence allow, and she or he took the aircraft for London … But on the airport, the authorities refused her entry into the territory and despatched her to Lagos. She says she was kidnapped in an residence with different women, the place they’ve been raped each day for a month. Then comes the departure for Europe. First Morocco, then Barcelona. Upon arrival, Queen was thrown on the sidewalk to “repay his debt”: 50,000 euros. “I agreed to prostitute myself because the mamas threatened my family of reprisals in Nigeria. Besides, my father was murdered, ”she says.

So right here she is in Paris, housed in a resort in Barbès. The passes are linked: from 50 to 80 per day. She says: “” If you are speaking, you are going to die. ” This is what they told me to force me to prostitute me. »»

The work of women’s bus activists

Years of abuse and violence accumulate, until she crosses the road to women’s bus activists. For the first time, someone reaches out to him. In the country, she asks her mother to find her voodoo doll – the one who binds her to her executioners. She seizes it … before burning it. It costs only 20 euros, but it remains a symbolic gesture that releases, says Queen, in the evil eye … Even if five minutes before telling it, she swore not to believe it.

To obtain his papers, he is offered a market: to denounce his network. She accepts, but “taking care to save lots of the mama who introduced her in”. Who delivered to the authorities? She remains vague. “There are mamas golf equipment,” she breathes. Behind each young woman, a matron who organizes the flows, distributes the debts, orchestrates the passages.

Today, Queen strives to rebuild himself, far from hell. His experience is useful to help other women to escape operating networks. She meets Nigerian prostitutes and helps them find a lawyer for their papers thanks to the association where she officiates, while also accompanying them in all their daily worries, starting by providing them with condoms. She is devoted to her children. She has two with her in France, and one who stayed in Nigeria and that she has not seen for fifteen years … The path of resilience is still long. A dream keeps her awake: to bring her 18 -year -old son to France. It will be his last fight.

And then there is Juliet. Another story, a similar path. When her 1 -year -old daughter falls seriously ill, the hospital refuses to treat her because she cannot pay. The little one breathes only very weakly … Juliet will watch her child die in her arms: “If I had had cash, my daughter would nonetheless be alive. The well being system in Nigeria solely works with cash. She would not have one.

“I am called Baby Love, but my real name is Juliet Omuruyi Ehige. Juliet arrived in Paris from Nigeria in 2008, at 23 years old. Raised by her grandmother before joining after her death a violent and neglecting father, she fell pregnant the first time she made love, at 17 years old. In love and naive, she makes three children with the same man, who will eventually turn her back for another woman, without taking care of them. Juliet finds himself alone to provide for his family, and does not get by. The tragedy of the death of her daughter pushes her to leave to “offer a better life to her children”.

We present him a man, Nosa, who offers him a departure, first by Togo. On arrival, she says she was locked up with other girls and had to “prove her motivation” by forced reports … especially to mount the first on the plane. “Make love when you are forced to do it, is it rape?” She asks. Upon her arrival in France, she presents a false passport and requests asylum by refusing to call the mama supposed to recover it: “When you have a debt to repay, you pay it by prostituting yourself. »»

The fear of juju

In the years when young Nigerians flocked hundreds of hundreds on French territory, the authorities were on alert. M^e Émilie Perrier, former executive manager of SOS racism and lawyer for the LICRA, remembers: “At that time, young women arrived with an almost identical story, visibly dictated by milking networks. The OFPRA (French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Effrusion) quickly understood that these were manufactured versions, inspired by their pimps. They were therefore systematically dismissed from their asylum request. »»

Without relay, social services transfer Juliet to the Red Cross, which redirects her to Italy where her mother lives. But the latter does not respond, and it is delivered to itself. Meanwhile, the network harasses it. Her relatives in Nigeria are under pressure. It is threatened with juju, this mystical practice of Voodoo supposed to punish it if it does not pay. “As I believe in God, I am protected, Juju, that does not reach me. They took me to a sorcerer, but I resisted, ”she mentioned proudly. She will give in, lastly.

The community sends it to a brothel to Milan. Violence, imposed passes, inhuman situations. She finally ends up fleeing … But the cycle is launched, Juliet can now not work in any other case than to prostitute himself. She attaches himself to a shopper, who seems to be pimp, and places her again on the sidewalk. All day lengthy, she continues the passes for him, however he takes her all her cash, strikes her and terrorizes her.

A Frenchman will undergo there, and he too will love him, as we cling to a lifeline. He places her pregnant, she follows him in Paris. Two women are born from this union, however he will even abandon him, after being violent, even when he nonetheless acknowledges his daughters, which permits them to have papers … For Juliet, it will likely be a brief residence allow. We are in 2014, and she or he falls again into the arms of a mama. “When I lived in the building controlled by the network, I earned barely 400 to 600 euros per month, when I was up to 50 passes per day. »»

It is then that he is offered to join a brothel in Belgium. There, a pass, it’s 150 euros, in Paris, it is 20 to 30 euros at most: “I really appreciated the security that Belgian official status gives us, since it is legal, and that it pays much better. »»

The legalized system of our neighbors actually offers working conditions controlled for prostitutes, as well as a certain legal certainty and more stable and higher remuneration.

In Brussels, Juliet sometimes earns up to 5,000 euros per month. She can finally send money to her sons who have remained in Nigeria. But for her daughters, it gets complicated. They are disrupted by the miserable life they are forced to lead, and suspect the profession of their mother … It is starting to see themselves at school, which alerts social services.

In 2016, Juliet was blocked for two months during a trip to Nigeria because of a paper problem. Back in Paris, she discovers that her belongings are stacked pell-mell on the balcony … She knocks on the door, again and again … But nobody answers her.

With his daughters, they are on the street. They are welcomed by a friend. The galley continues. Juliet continues the passes. She says that, at that time, her former Nigerian roommate filed a complaint against her for … pimp.

In 2019, she was arrested and put into pre -trial detention, then released after a year, in the process, she received an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory). Juliet is now awaiting his judgment, while claiming her innocence: “The girl who had prevented me from returning and recovering my things, it was she who denounced me for supposedly pimps in 2019, because she has made an agreement, that of denouncing her network to have her papers, and of course, they are not the real attackers she gave, it is far too dangerous. »»

During the investigation, the two women faced and, according to Juliet, the denuncrator admitted that she has never forced her to work, as she never took her money.

Juliet is now under judicial supervision. Her daughters were placed in a home which, she says, is the worst to live: “I miss my daughters every day. At night, when I’m alone, the world collapses. I have nothing. »For m^e Émilie Perrier, the administrative logic is relentless: “The objective of the administration remains to expel people as quickly as possible. There are cases where the OQTF is disputed in court, but the foreigner is expelled even before the deliberation. »»

“I want to die, but I don’t kill myself, for my children”

Admittedly, progress has been made on processing times. But for the lawyer, the rules are not respected: “We expel first, we then judge. “In this climate, another worried trend:” There is a race for numbers. And like some countries, such as Algeria, refuse to resume their nationals, the state turns more and more to nationals of so -called “friends” international locations to realize its aims. »»

To uncover



The kangaroo of the day

Answer

Juliet is right this moment in an deadlock: “I do not need to prostitute myself anymore, however undocumented, inconceivable to work legally. In addition, I’m afraid every single day to be arrested and despatched again to Nigeria. Often, I need to die, however I do not kill myself, for my kids. »M^e Perrier denounces: “Women in precarious immigration are compelled to reside in hiding to attempt to keep themselves so long as doable within the territory, by making a low profile of the 5 years essential for his or her request for a title. We push them to reside in illegality. »»

What anxious Juliet is the destiny of his daughters who at the moment are 13 and 15 years previous. She is satisfied that, with out assist, her daughters will observe the identical path as her, in the direction of prostitution. M^e Émilie Perrier is lucid: “The everlasting motion of laws makes the authorized motion of legal professionals advanced. The legislation of foreigners is political. The conditions of individuals change in any respect in keeping with the people and the necessities evolve between the time of submitting the request and the examination of the state of affairs. There is a legislative half, however there may be that of the state service and the way in which by which it examines the circumstances. I’ve the sensation that the target is to search out the argument that may reject the demand and to not welcome it. Juliet hopes to get his papers and get better his daughters. She by no means needs to return to jail once more. But the combat is lengthy, and the end result, unsure.