"It was impossible to say no." How girls from poor countries are involved in the sex industry in Europe

“The first thing I saw was light. Where I came from, it’s always dark because there’s no electricity. But here everything shimmered with lights, and it was wonderful!” - Jewel (not her real name) recalls her first meeting with Denmark.

“I thanked God that I was in this country and was eager to get to work.”

At home, the girl was told that she would take care of the elderly.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that up to 80% of Nigerian women who go to work in Europe are actually recruited for prostitution. Of course, Jewel had heard about cases of deception, but those women had made a difficult and dangerous journey on buses to Libya and on boats across the Mediterranean Sea, and she was offered to fly from Lagos to Copenhagen by plane, and this reassured her.

“Everything was so well organized that I didn’t have any suspicions,” she says.

In Copenhagen she was met by a compatriot, who the next day took the new arrival to Vesterbro, the local red light district.

“I was looking around for a clinic,” Jewel recalls. The companion always advised us to take a good look at the area, and then she was dumbfounded by the terrible truth.

“This is where you will work!” - she said. I turned around, thinking she was pointing to a suitable-looking building. And then she calmly explained that “here” was on the street along which we were walking, and the “work” would be to hunt for clients. It seemed to me that the world around me began to collapse."

That same evening, there was a chance meeting that would later turn out to be important - with Michelle Mildwater from the NGO HopeNow, which helps people like Jewel in Denmark. She noticed a petite girl of about twenty who looked frightened and gave her a business card with a phone number.

“This is not my thing,” says Jewel. “I always stood on the sidelines with a timid look, but they still found me. Regular clients know when a new girl appears, and they are always drawn to new things.”

According to the latest EU data, in 2017-2018 more than 14 thousand women were trafficked across borders, mainly for prostitution, about half from outside the EU. Nigeria is in the top five supplying countries. This is the tip of the iceberg, since the statistics include only identified cases.

As a rule, everything happens according to the same scheme. Young women are offered decent jobs, but upon arrival they are told that there is none, and they owe money for delivery and accommodation.

“This is debt serfdom,” says Sine Plambeck, a senior researcher at the migration department at the Danish Institute of International Studies. “In the case of Nigerian women, the amount is between ten and sixty thousand euros. It needs to be paid back quickly, and if you don’t have an official work permit, All that remains is the sex industry."

Those who recruited Jewel, the day before her flight from Lagos, informed her that she would have to pay 42 thousand euros in installments and made her swear that she would not tell anyone anything, otherwise she and her family would suffer. To make it scarier, the conversation took place in a cemetery.

When Jewel was already in Denmark, her loved ones were actually threatened.

“Some people came to us and persistently asked my grandmother to talk to me so that I would not even think about reporting to the police or not paying off the debt. Every time I called her, she cried and tried to persuade me not to let my family down.”

Under such pressure there was no talk of choice.

“It was impossible to say no. Everyone had to say yes. Each potential client was hunted by ten to fifteen women who wanted to make money that evening.”

Everything happened in cars parked in parking lots, or even on the ground between the cars. If the client offered to go to his home, there was more comfort, but also more risk.

“One man told me to take off my clothes and get into the bathtub, and then he brought two buckets of ice and started pouring cold water on me,” Jewel says, shuddering at the memory.

After four months on the panel, despondent and desperate, Jewel was still reluctant to go to the authorities, fearing for herself and her family in Nigeria.

And suddenly her life magically changed. It sounds like a sentimental tale, but she fell in love with the Dane, and he with her. During their first romantic dinner, Jewel admitted how she makes a living.

“It was hard for him, but he rose to the occasion,” Jewel says of the man who would soon become her husband.

This picture was painted by Jewel

From that day on, Jewel stopped appearing on the panel.

Several times the groom paid a weekly rent for her, but it was clear that a permanent solution was required. "Do you know someone who could help?" - he asked. This is where Michelle Mildwater's phone card came in handy.

The activist advised the young woman to overcome her fear and stop paying “madam.” So she did. There were no troubles for the relatives - either the blackmailers were bluffing, or, fortunately, they turned out to be criminal minorities, and not members of a serious international gang.

Jewel filed a petition about a residence permit and is now awaiting a decision. She hopes for a favorable outcome because she has mastered the language and given birth to a child with a Danish citizen.

Michelle and I are great friends. She was a bridesmaid at Jewel's wedding.

"It was one of the best moments of my life - I was walked down the aisle and it was Michelle," Jewel says.

She dreams of going to business school and also helping volunteers.