It's just after 9pm when the first Nigerian women start to appear on the streets of Asti, a small city near Turin in Italy. Some stand in groups of two or three, flagging down passing cars.
Many are alone - solitary figures backlit by the stream of headlights moving into the city. Princess Inyang Okokon slows down her car as she spots two girls standing on a corner. Even with makeup they look no older than According to her, most of the Nigerian prostitutes working Asti's streets are victims of trafficking. Princess knows first-hand about the horrors these women are living through. In , she was trafficked herself from her home in Nigeria to Turin. For three decades, a thriving sex-trafficking industry has been operating between Nigeria and Italy.
The trade in women began in the s when Nigerians travelling to Italy on work visas to pick tomatoes realised selling sex was more profitable than harvesting. Since then, 30, Nigerian women have been trafficked into prostitution, finding themselves on street corners in Italy and other European states. In , 5, Nigerian women arrived by sea in Italy.
The UN believes 80pc of these are victims of trafficking. More than 85pc of these women have come from Nigeria's Edo state, where traffickers have exploited poverty to sell false promises of prosperity in Europe. Princess was one of the first wave of women to come from Nigeria. Then a single mother of three children, she was approached by a woman she knew from work, who offered her a job in Italy. I wanted more for my children. This woman said I could pay back the cost of travel when I started earning.
I believed her. She flew to London on a fake passport. When she arrived she called a number she'd been given and a man picked her up and drove her to Italy.
