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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?
What happened
A local recruiter called a "navi" (meaning "aunt" or "big sister" in the Kotokoli language) came to see the victim, she was receptive. Her father had died and her mother and stepfather had left her and her sister on their own. The victim knew a Muslim girl must have a dowry in or to marry and knew that many girls went to Nigeria to make money. The recruiter offered just what she wanted--a chance to travel to Nigeria with her to make money to save up for her dowry. The recruiter even offered to pay for the trip. She told no one, but one day got into the recruiter's truck with 50 other Kotokoli girls on their way to Nigeria. The trip took three days. Finally they arrived in Shaki, in the north of Oyo State. They were told to line up so that their future employers could select their workers. A Nigerian woman selected the victim and she was taken to live and work with other girls. A piece of cloth on a mud floor was her only bed. The girls did housework and cooked dishes which they sold on the street. After a time the employer began prostituting them at night as well as working them all day. She was only 11 years old when she was first forced into prostitution. Sometimes they had to go to work so immediately that there was no time for them even to eat. After 2 years the victim discovered she was pregnant. She told the man she thought might be the father, and he paid for her to abort the child by taking herbs. After the abortion, she escaped from that house and looked for work elsewhere. She escaped the prostitution but still had no decent place to sleep and worked all day with no pay. Then her first employer found out where she was and began to threaten her. She'd been at the second place for 8 months when she escaped from there, too. She found another woman who spoke her language, and the woman arranged for a man to drive her back to Togo. The trip took five days. She had virtually no money, so the driver paid for her food along the way. AT the Benin-Togo border she was forced to walk across in order to avoid the authorities, and she was attacked and beaten by thieves hoping she might have something worth taking. She didn't. When she arrived home, the driver told her family they owed him the equivalent of $60. The family told him they would try to save it up and pay him. They are still working on it.
Response and intervention
The authorities were not contacted. The victim escaped and found her way home. The victim escaped. After arriving home, she received a dressmaking apprenticeship from a local NGO. Story recorded by CARE Togo and the Peace Corps, 1995