Nigerian Girls Forced into Prostitution in Russia

How Nigerian girls are forced into prostitution in Russia Criminals appear to be taking advantage of Russia's student visa system to force girls into prostitution. 

DW's Emma Burrows has been investigating how Nigerians come for university and disappear into the sex trade.

Two years ago a woman came to Blessing Osakwe's hometown in the south of Nigeria and told the young woman there was work for her in Russia.

She told Osakwe she would have a job in a supermarket, and that it would take the her just five or six months to earn the money to reimburse the costs of the visa and the journey to Russia. After paying back the $40,000, Osakwe could keep all the money she made, the woman said.

Osakwe said her parents are very poor and that the idea of going to Russia to help them and to save money for her education appealed to her. She agreed.

Only when she arrived, did she discover everything the woman had said was a lie.

There was no supermarket job. Instead, Osakwe told DW, she was forced to work as a prostitute.

She was driven around Moscow to have sex with men. One night, she was taken to an apartment building where one man was apparently waiting for her. When she got inside, she discovered there were eight men. She was forced to sleep with all of them, she said. When she refused to have sex without a condom, they took back the money they had paid and beat and molested her, she said.

Then they threw her from the fourth floor of the building.

Osakwe broke her hip when she hit the ground. She spent two-days on life-support in the hospital until her treatment was stopped because, she said, she could not afford to pay. She now cannot walk properly and is confined to a wheelchair.

Trafficked on student Visas Osakwe's story is not uncommon, said Kenny Kehinde, who works with several Moscow NGOs focused on preventing human trafficking. Around 2,000-3,000 Nigerian girls - many from poor, remote villages - are brought to Russia every year for sex work, he said. This is international modern-day slavery,where the girls are brought here with the help of some Russian government officials,some well connected Nigerian authorities and so-called 'madams' [pimps] who exploit these girls for sex in Russia," said Kehinde.