Thousands of Nigerian women are forced into prostitution in Italy. That is the alarming conclusion of Be Free, an association in Rome that tries to help victims of human trafficking.

Most of them originate from the region Niger delta, in Southwest Nigeria and left with the idea of a better life in Europe, but end up in prostitution. Monica is one of those women.

Monica is 19 years old but her frail physique and the shy look on her face makes her seem younger. She left Benin City, in South west Nigeria, almost five years ago to try and find a better life in Europe. Before the interview starts she wants to say something to girls in Nigeria, hoping they don't make the same mistakes she made: “Don't believe anybody. They'll bring you to place where you don't belong and they don't care about you. The only thing they care about is money.”

When Monica left Nigeria she was told she was going to work in a department store. A man bought her a ticket to Amsterdam where customs instantly found out that her documents were false. She was taken to the refugee centre at Amsterdam airport, from where she was transported to another refugee centre in the south of Holland.

“I met a Nigerian woman who wanted to escape from the centre. I escaped with her but lost her out of sight. Another Nigerian woman on the station saw my desperation and said she would take care of me.”

This Nigerian woman took Monica to the city of Florence in Italy, where she was forced to work on the streets. Monica hadn't even reached the age of 18 yet. “I don't have big breasts”, she smiles shyly. “So I put socks in my bra to look older.”

Sadly enough Monica is not an exception. Driving around in Italy you see Nigerian girls standing on the side of almost every main road leading into the country's cities. Thousands of girls are forced into prostitution, says Francesca Esposito from BeFree, an organisation that tries to help victims of human trafficking.

“It's hard to tell how many girls are forced into prostitution in Italy”, she says. “But we are talking with these girls. They are from all kinds of backgrounds. Most of them are Nigerian, like Monica, but there are also a lot of girls from eastern Europe, like Romania.”

To a certain extent Monica was lucky - she came to Europe by plane. Most of the women, after a long journey through the Sahara desert, ended up in Libyan brothels before they even reach Italy. In the book 'Storie di Ponte e di Frontiere' (Stories of bridges and frontiers) published by BeFree, the horrible stories of these journeys are collected. Stories of blackmail through voodoo rituals, of rape and forced abortions.

Such stories are also known to Monica: “Other girls told me how they traveled to Italy. About the people they lost along the way and all the money they have spent to get here.”

In 2009, the Italian government signed a treaty with the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to try to block immigration from northern Africa. Since then the immigration has almost come to a stop. This means that many women, Nigerian and others are blocked in the Libyan capital Tripoli, says Francesca Esposito. “We don't know under what circumstances they live in these refugee centres, because we can't enter Libya.

Many of them are victims of human trafficking or political refugees, who now can't reach Italy and ask for asylum. So according to us this treaty has definitely worsened the situation for these people.”