A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

A State of Mind

The first front in the war against trafficking is psychological. Many of those trafficked are lured into the trade by false promises, like Berta. They would not have left Nigeria if they knew what awaited them. Many more go of their own free will, in spite of the lurid stories. Not much can be done to deter them, short of jail.

Some are caught in the middle. They are gullible and insecure. This makes them extremely vulnerable to trafficking and also hard to reach. This emerged clearly when the Advocacy Project met with Sonia, a young woman who was managed to escape from her traffickers in Turin, Italy, and returned to Nigeria. She is now in the care of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Benin City, a Catholic order.

Sonia can recall her ordeal in detail. The problem is that many details do not add up. The sisters would like to believe that she never engaged in prostitution in Italy (as she claims). But they fear she may have tasted life in the fast lane and wants more. If so, she would not be the first.

What we saw in Sonia was a very disturbed young woman. One moment she would act like a normal teenager, swaying to the music of a CD-player with her eyes shut and a sweet smile on her face. The next moment she would be off in a dark brooding world all of her own.

Whatever the truth of her story, Sonia illustrates the fragile emotional state of the girls who escape trafficking. She is also a warning to any would-be researcher. So few Nigerian victims have come forward to tell their story-and the traffickers are so intimidating-that those who escape, like Berta and Sonia, are likely to be the main source of information for some time to come.
 

Sonia in a world of her own.

But great care needs to be taken when gathering the facts so as not to revive the trauma. Questions have to be put with tact and sensitivity. This is best done one on one, and in the presence of someone who has gained the trust of the young woman. It is not a job for outsiders who are strangers to the culture.