Voodoo used to force African girls into prostitution

Thousands of African girls, some as young as 15, are forced into prostitution in British and European brothels under the threat of black magic. Traffickers entrap their victims by persuading them to take part in rituals in which they are forced to drink or spread on their bodies a ‘magical potion’. Samples of their blood, teeth, hair and nails are mixed with other ingredients to concoct the mixture, former prostitutes have said.

The practice is “juju”, a form of voodoo black magic in Nigeria, where such rituals are a major influence on people. “This is a lethal combination of criminal networks and so-called juju priests,” Dr Michael Korzinski, of the Helen Bamber Foundation, a charity helping victims of torture, told the Sunday Times newspaper. He said the charity, has dealt with about 30 women who say they were ensnared by such juju curses. “It can happen in the country of origin and it can happen in the UK,” he said. The rituals will protect them on their way to a better life in Britain, victims are told. They are later forced into prostitution and told the spells will kill them if they try to escape. Some are also given the threat that breaking the witchcraft oaths will make spirits harm members of their families.

Nearly 1.2 million people are trafficked each year — an estimated 120,000 into Europe and some 10,000 in the United Kingdom alone. Evidence that juju rituals are used to smuggling people into Europe most recently came to light in 2001 when police found the mutilated remains of a young African boy, they named Adam. The boy's torso was dumped in the river Thames. One trafficker was found to have kept dozens of bottles with hair and other body parts in them. Sara, a 24-year-old Nigerian, was subjected to the black magic before she was trafficked into Britain. "He took me to the juju man before we went," she told the paper, referring to her trafficker. "He cut me with a razor blade on my back and on my breasts and took my blood. He cut my hair from my head and also from my armpits." Sara was warned that she would die and her spirit be cast into hell if she returned home before her debt to the trafficker was paid off. In Britain, she was forced into working as a prostitute in a brothel.

Mary, another Nigerian girl, was also brought into Britain in 2005 and forced into prostitution. "They made me drink juju water before the men would arrive," she said of her daily routine in Britain. “People here in the West do not understand the power these belief systems have over people like Sara,” Dr Korzinski said. “Only after counselling and the blessings of a Church of England priest did Sara begin to believe that her curse had been lifted.”

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children