Criminal gang charges Nigerian prostitutes thousands of euros for entry to Finland

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The Helsinki police suspect a Nigerian gang of criminals of having practiced procurement of Nigerian women in Finland as well as having arranged the women’s illegal entry into the country in exchange for a sizeable sum of money.
      The case is more or less unprecedented, in that there have hitherto been no documented cases of Africans being suspected of procurement of other Africans. Usually pimps in these instances are found from countries closer to home, such as Estonia and Russia.
     
According to information obtained by Helsingin Sanomat, the gang is suspected of having charged the women thousands of euros for their entry into Europe and the European sex trade market.
      One of the women may have been charged up to EUR 60,000 for her trip plus other services.
      The gang is also suspected of having arranged women into Finland who could not afford to pay for the journey beforehand.
      These women have been settling their debt afterwards from their income from sex with Finnish men.
     
In late September and early October, the Helsinki District Court remanded five men and women of Nigerian origin in custody on suspicion of procurement.
      One of those being held is also suspected of aggravated organising of illegal immigration. The apprehended individuals are between 21 and 34 years of age.
      In the warrant documents, Helsinki is mentioned as the place where the crimes were committed.
     
From the documents one can conclude that the organising of the Nigerian women’s illegal entry into Finland is believed to have taken place at the beginning of April.
      The procurement is suspected of having continued from early April until mid-September.
      The police are continuing their investigations into the case.
     
Before this year, there have been hardly any Nigerian prostitutes operating in Finland.
      The change may result from Norway’s decision to criminalise purchasing of sex services from January of this year.
      Previously prostitution had been strikingly in evidence on the streets of Norwegian cities, with women from Nigeria in particular seen touting for business on the main thoroughfares of the capital Oslo.
      According to Minna Huovinen of Pro-tukipiste, a not-for-profit organisation supporting and promoting the civil and human rights of individuals involved in sex work, Norway’s new law has caused the Nigerian and also Balkan prostitutes to migrate to other European countries.
      “In the hopes of a higher standard of living, some of these groups may have landed in Finland as well”, Huovinen explains.
      Apart from Nigeria, this year Finland has received prostitutes from other new regions as well, such as South America and certain areas of Eastern Europe.


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Helsingin Sanomat