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info@danishdoc.dkFrom Copenhagen (it could have been any city in Europe) to Lagos in Nigeria Joy and Anna they tell their horrifying stories, revealing the suffering endured by many victims of trafficking; forced into prostitution by violence, constantly threatened by unscrupulous criminal networks and systematically treated as criminals instead of victims by the social authorities.
Joy is 23 years old and has been trafficked several times prior to landing at Copenhagen Airport. Her crime is that her papers were not in order; all she wants to do is to go home.Anna suffers every night in the dark streets of Copenhagen. She believed that she was going to Denmark as a student nurse but in stead was tricked and conned into prostitution which is directly opposed to her very religious beliefs.
Duration: 40 minutes. Digital Betacam. DVD. 2007 Original language: English Subtitles: Danish, English, Spanish Danish Film Institute, consultant Dola Bonfils, TV2/Denmark, commissioning editor Henning Møller Danida, Oak Foundation Denmark, The Aase & Ejnar Danielsen’s Fundation, Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, lotto-funds, The L.F. Foght Foundation, Ministry of Equal Opportunities.
© 2007 Danish Doc Production ApS
Over the past years many European countries, including Denmark, have seen a sharp increase in the number of Nigerian women involved in prostitution. The overwhelming majority of these women are victims of human trafficking. Many arrive in Europe following a horrifying journey across the African continent. Once arrived at their destination, the traffickers present each of the women with a fictitious bill of € 60.000, payable at once. Prostitution is the only possible way out of the debt.
Michelle Mildwater is a social worker sporting a special gift. Even if Nigerian women in the streets of Copenhagen are fearful and scared to talk, they are willing to talk to Michelle. She offers counselling and access to medical aid not requiring papers and social security numbers.
Through Michelle we meet 23-year old Joy who has been trafficked several times prior to landing at Copenhagen Airport. The papers provided by the traffickers were forged and Joy was taken straight to prison. Later she was transferred to the department for detained asylum seekers. However, Joy is not an asylum seeker. Her crime is that her papers were not in order; all she wants to do is to go home. Apart from Copenhagen Airport and a variety of Danish detention facilities, she has had no contact with the Danish society. This is where we meet Joy, where she – and not the traffickers – is in custody. Joy is also trapped in the memories of the deeply traumatic events that brought her to Denmark. The film depicts Joy’s journey back to Nigeria and her encounter with the chaotic and extremely poor Lagos, where no help is found unless money paves the way. The Danish authorities provide deportees with € 100 but most of that money ends up in the pockets of corrupt officials in Lagos airport.
Michelle also knows Anna who every night suffers in the dark streets of Copenhagen. She gives accounts of the nightly assaults and rapes against prostitutes. How she believed that she was going to Denmark as a student nurse but in stead was tricked and conned into prostitution which is directly opposed to her very religious beliefs. Both Anna and her family in Nigeria have been threatened by the traffickers who will stop at nothing, neither violence nor murder.
Anna is detained in a police raid in Copenhagen and is deported to Nigeria. Here a life as outcast awaits her. A life where she must go under ground as the traffickers are trying to hunt her down and send her back to Europe so she can work off her debt.
Michelle travels to Nigeria to try to help Anna. She looks up nuns and relief organisations that may hide Anne from the traffickers and help her to new start in life but all turn them down. No money, no help; the € 100 given to Anna by the Danish Authorities upon her departure is nowhere enough. Anna’s family is threatened and they try to persuade her to go back. Anna refuses: ”I will rather eat sand in Nigeria than work in the streets of Copenhagen”.
Michelle visits the poor villages from where the young women come. In one day she is offered four girls whom she can take home for nothing. Many Nigerians are desperate and completely unaware of the life that awaits their young women in Europe.
It is difficult to believe that reality is so horrifying.