Oslo Top Spot for Trafficked African Women

"GLORIA" SMUGGLED INTO OSLO FROM NIGERIA

Norway's Aftenposten reports today that Oslo is fast becoming known as a top destination spot to traffickers who smuggle women from Africa to work in this city as sex slaves.

One of the many Nigerian women forced into prostitution in the Oslo area told newspaper Aftenposten Tuesday that she and several others were held captive in a house in Østfold, southeastern Norway. She says she knew she was in Europe, but had no idea where in Europe.

Like others in her situation, 19-year-old "Gloria" had fled poverty in Nigeria and was looking for a better life. She landed in a refugee camp in Morocco, and thought she was lucky when a man she calls "Mister" took interest in her and said he'd help her get to Europe.

It didn't matter, he said, that she had no money to fund her travels. She could pay "Mister" back after she got a job. He didn't mention what type of job that might be.

In what police in Oslo have described as a familiar pattern, the man was kind to "Gloria" in the beginning. He won her trust. "I thought he was a good man," she told Aftenposten.

She and several other women were smuggled over to Spain in a small boat. A bigger boat took them to Italy and from there the women eventually were sent to Norway, where police claim there's a large market of men willing to pay for sexual services.

"Gloria" says she escaped from the house where she was repeatedly raped by "Mister" and forced to have sex with men who'd talked with "Mister." She says she never saw any money.