This is the story of is a young Nigerian woman who has been in Luxembourg since 2014. She works for the Luxembourg health board and has one more year of nursing training to complete. This story is about abuse, betrayal and daring to dream of a better life.
This is her story, and her journey, but her description is typical of many young people in her country.
Ayo grew up in a polygamous family, her father had two wives, and there were many siblings. There wasn’t much money to go around and in terms of education, the male members of the family were given priority. Ayo loved school and dreamed of being a nurse, at the age of twelve she was sent to live with an uncle, who would send her to school. The reality of that move however was quite different to her expectations, and she was used as a maid for the family and sent to hawk goods in the street early in the morning and after school. Very soon going to school fell away altogether. One evening, late at night, her uncle’s wife set her on an errand. Ayo was attacked and raped. Afraid of being shamed and exposed to the family’s wrath she kept the attack to herself.
When Ayo’s parents separated her uncle put her out, saying that since her mother was no longer married to his brother, she was not his responsibility. Eventually Ayo was reunited with her mother and biological siblings, there was no money to go around, so there was no chance of going back to school. Eventually, Ayo was passed on to a friend of the family in Lagos, who needed a maid. Again, school was out of her reach, but her plan was to save money to return to school. It was at her new “Auntie’s” house in Lagos that she met a Nigerian woman, who lived and worked in Greece. She struck up a friendship with Ayo, asking her if she had ever considered leaving the country to go to Europe. She said, she had a business in Europe, she could help, she had connections for the travel documents, she would help.
Ayo had to find the money for her flight, so her mother borrowed money in the belief that her daughter’s good fortune would liberate the rest of the family.
A flight to Turkey was arranged, where someone would meet her….they did meet her… and when they took her passport for “safe keeping “, a very different picture of this new reality started to form for Ayo.
Ayo’s desire for an education, a deep faith and the help of a number of good people have kept her moving forward in Luxembourg, but the journey has not been easy.
This young woman’s story is only one of many. The links between organised crime, human trafficking and cities across Europe are strong and sophisticated. More needs to be done to ensure the lives of young women in their home countries are worth living.
Trafficked and sexually exploited woman and girls can find themselves facing prosecution and conviction for those very same crimes. Recent UN investigations show that in many countries it is women who groom younger girls and women for sexual exploitation. A new publication from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows the complexity of many human-trafficking-related cases, in which the defendant may also be a victim, who either had no alternative but to obey an order, and commit a crime, or hoped to limit their own exploitation or escape poverty by playing a role in the crime. The study also found that traffickers use the women and girls as a shield to protect themselves from being punished for their crimes. More reporting can be found here