Europe’s shame: African migrant children sexually exploited for safe passage to France

A report from a children’s charity has revealed that migrant children from Africa are forced into sex trafficking in order to obtain safe passage from Italy to France.

Such a passage costs about $60 to $175 and since the children could not access such money, they are forced into sex trade.  They are also forced to perform sex acts to get food and shelter in cases that have been going on since the beginning of the year.

The report by the Save the Children added that 1,900 girls had been sexually exploited across Italy between January 2017 and March 2018.

“These are very young, and particularly at-risk girls, who are among the invisible flow of unaccompanied migrant minors in transit at the northern Italian border who, in an attempt to reunite with their relatives or acquaintances in other European countries, are deprived of the opportunity to travel safely and legally,” Raffaela Milano, the director of Italy-Europe programmes at Save the Children, said in the report.

The report further indicated that eight out of ten Nigerian girls who arrived in Italy by sea are potential victims of sexual exploitation.

“Induced by their exploiters to declare themselves adults at the time of identification operations following the landing, many young Nigerians thus escape the system of protection for minors,” the report said.

The organisation has called for the protection of these children to save them from any form of exploitation.

“At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the anti-trafficking network at the European and international level to target criminal networks that speculate on the suffering of minors and to strengthen law enforcement measures in a widespread way throughout the territory, both for sexual exploitation and for sexual exploitation. work “, continued Milano.