A Dutch court today convicted a group of mostly Nigerian men for people smuggling and sentenced them to up to 4.5 years in prison. The gang were charged with responsibility for the trafficking of some 140 young Nigerian women and girls.
 
Based on an article by Hélène Michaud
 
The girls were brought into the Netherlands and then mysteriously disappeared from Dutch refugee centres. Just ten of the victims have been traced – it’s assumed the others are working in the sex industry in various European countries. The prosecution had hoped to convict the gang for human trafficking but, the court ruled there was no proof that the men knew the girls they smuggled would be forced into the sex industry once they arrived.
 
Listen to an interview with lawyer Annet Koopsen:

The public prosecutor is disappointed with the verdict, a Justice Department spokesperson said, “People-smuggling is always a means to and end, and in this case the end was human trafficking”, he also said an appeal would be lodged.
 
International operation
The trial was the climax of a secret international operation called “Koolvis”, launched after lawyers discovered a recurring pattern in the stories told by Nigerian girls in Dutch asylum centres. One of them, Grace, said her “madam” told her she must pay 50,000 euros for bringing her to Europe and providing her with a passport: “And then she said if you say you will not pay I will do things that make you go mad and crazy.” Grace was scared and felt she had no option but to work as a prostitute.
 
Voodoo threats
Operation Koolvis involved Dutch, Nigerian, Italian French, Belgian, British and US investigators and is being hailed as a groundbreaking model for co-ordinated international investigations. The biggest challenge for the authorities was to convince the traumatised victims to bring charges against the men who trafficked them. Annet Koopsen is the lawyer for one of these girls and explains how authorities used a Nigerian priest to help support Grace and the other victims.
 
“A lot of these girls were threatened with Voodoo rituals in Nigeria, they were told that if they go to the police, harm might overcome them or their relatives in Nigeria. Most of these girls are very religious, they are Christian and this priest tried to convince them that they should trust God more than this Voodoo priest, that God is stronger than a voodoo ritual.”
 
Ms Koopsen says the girls and their relatives also received more concrete threats of physical harm – some of which were carried out - but the involvement of the Nigerian priest was seen as the operation’s most original and successful initiative.
 
What about the victims?
But there has been criticism of the operation as well.  Hans Gaasbeek is Vice- President of the organisation Lawyers without Borders and believes Koolvis focussed too much on the perpetrators at the expense of the victims. He’s angry there wasn’t more effort invested in tracing the girls, who were in the care of the Dutch authorities when they disappeared.
 
“We’re talking about children who are being trafficked into prostitution. I find it incomprehensible that this isn’t a priority…Imagine the uproar if this case had involved more than 100 Dutch girls. The Netherlands would have been too small to contain the uproar! But I don’t see any public indignation.”
 
An on-going problem
Since this particular people smuggling network was rolled up fewer Nigerian girls have been arriving in the Netherlands but, says Ms Koopsen the problem still remains:
 
“Now there are pre-flight checks in Nigeria itself, so what we see now is that these girls come through a different route and also that some of the Nigerian traffickers have chosen other countries, a lot of girls from Sierra Leone and Guinea are coming. The problem is still there because there is a market. There is a lot of money to be made in this business.”
 
And just tackling the traffickers is not enough – poverty in their home countries is what makes girls vulnerable, says Ms Koopsen, and as long as this is the case victims will always be tempted by men who promise them a better future in Europe.

Photo: Baptiste Fons (Flickr CC)