Burkina Faso, desert southwest of Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, 2006
Burkina Faso BF
The trafficker, simply known as “Tony” abandoned the girls in the desert when they refused his plans. He promised them to take them to visit a relative living in Germany, but when he got them to Burkina Faso, he told them they were there for prostitution. The other seven victims were in their late teens and twenties. They were found with an Edo-born driver at a nearby church along Seme border, by Immigration officers, following a tip-off from one of the villagers. These young women are from Delta State. They were promised job opportunities in Cotonou by one Sunday who was at large at the time of the report. The trafficker, who procured passports for the victims, paid for their fares to Cotonou hoping to join them later. The driver , who confirmed knowing the traffickers, had already arrived safely at an agreed point and was waiting to hand over the victims before the bubble burst. Yet another victim, who held a Nigerian standard passport, was repatriated from Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam on January 24, for not being in possession of valid travel documents. Though the victim had a certificate of indigeneship of Abia State, she hails from Benin City, Edo State. It was also discovered that she came to Lagos in October 2005 and stayed in a hotel with the human trafficker for three months as he arranged and facilitated her journey to Holland. The victim claimed that James saw her off to the boarding gate of the aircraft, and collected the passport only to leave her with a duplicate copy and certificate of indigeneship of Abia State.