This phenomenon has assumed a dimension that borrows heavily from the methods of international crime syndicates, which reap similar benefits from drug trafficking. Under the pretext of award of scholarships to study in Europe, parents are deceived into consenting to release their children to these criminals. But the unsuspecting girls are made to swear to oracles. Once in Europe their travel documents are taken from them, are initiated into the world of prostitution, while the proceeds of the trade goes to the syndicates. She is never free until she has paid back the cost of bringing her to Europe.
Experts estimate that it takes a girl about two to three years sessions to pay back.
By the time they buy back their freedom, they are reduced to zombies, dehumanised and a permanent scar left in their psyche. That is not the only danger, we are told that the girls sometimes barely 16 are often murdered, and forced into many forms of bestiality. In some parts of Northern Nigeria, there is a preponderance children drafted into begging for religious institutions. These children known as almajirs ,by convention go to these teachers in institutions where they are supposed to imbibe the values of humility. But the practice has been bastardised.