Dateline: Apr 10

On Tuesday Dateline meets a former Nigerian sex slave and her husband on a mission to rescue girls trafficked to work in Italy.

Human trafficking is the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise – its illegal profits making an estimated $200 billion AUD globally every year.

There are an estimated 20,000 Nigerian sex workers in Italy. Lured by the false promise of well paid jobs and a safer life, the young girls – many of them minors – are trapped by their smugglers and pimps, forced to repay crippling debts by engaging in sex acts for as little as five Euros.

Dateline meets Princess, a former sex slave, and her husband Alberto, who she met as a client nearly 20 years ago. Together, they are on a mission to get Nigerian women off the street and break the bonds of sexual servitude.

“My goal is to save the victims of trafficking and to let the women get back their right and dignity. I want to teach them how they can say no to bad ideas”, explains Princess.

In the past three years, there’s been a 600% jump in the number of sex trafficking victims arriving in Italy by sea. They’re part of the phenomenal wave of migration to Europe from Africa by boat and it’s now the most deadly migrant route in the world.

Princess and her team have rescued over 250 girls, including Beauty, who has been able to turn her life around with their help.

“When I came here I never thought there was going to be an opportunity to work because the belief was like there is no hope for people like us here. We thought it was all going to be in the street. But when I met her they made it change for us and now I’m working. I’m a normal person here. All thanks to them”, says Beauty.

Things could have ended up very differently for Beauty without Princess’ help. Like countless other girls on Italy’s busy motorways, she could have been forced against her will to see between five – 15 clients a day. And Princess shows no sign of slowing down her mission.

“My dream if I wish we can make the trafficking in human beings to stop and I can help all the victims in the street to live without depression because I think most of them have things in their mind but they don’t have someone to talk to. But I wish we can let them know that we are there to save them,” she explains.

Tuesday 10 April at 9.30pm on SBS.