Some even earn 200 euros a day, they charge 20 per performance. There are those who have two children in their country of origin and those who are forced to take to the streets by their husbands. There are those who used to be carers and those who are married to an Italian citizen. Small stories of ordinary and everyday violence against women that photograph the dramatic phenomenon of sexual exploitation and labor exploitation in our area, with which the operators of the social cooperative Medtraining have been committed to the project “Apulia does not treat together for the victims” since 2016. , whose intervention takes place in the territory of the Capitanata, which includes Monti Dauni, Tavoliere delle Puglie and the Gargano promontory. This is some of the most interesting data from the last six months’ activities carried out as part of the initiative aimed at helping victims of human trafficking and labor exploitation. Women and men who are exploited every day in the context of prostitution, labor or domestic exploitation, illegal farming, forced begging or organ trafficking.
The women of Eastern Europe
From July 1st to December 31st, 2021, the operators have therefore established contacts through the work of the mobile road unit 145, covering in particular the sections of the Statale 16 of the Alto Tavoliere and the Basso Tavoliere of the Statale 89 that enter Manfredonia, from the Statale ring road 673 by Foggia. Not only. Indeed, the operators also made excursions and meetings in the informal settlement of the Borgo Mezzanone airport runway in collaboration with the NGO Intersos and in the informal settlement of Torre Antonacci in the countryside of San Severo. The beneficiaries encountered during the work of the Roads Department are mainly women, mainly from Bulgaria (55%) and Romania (28.3%), representing the highest percentage of beneficiaries contacted. But there are also women on the street who come from Albania, the Dominican Republic, Italy and Nigeria.
The Nigeria Question
As a result, Nigerians are less and less present on the streets. A phenomenon also found in other areas of Italy, which raises the question of the causes of this increasingly invisible and therefore less controlled presence: “The decrease in the number of Nigerian women arriving in Italy; the move to the socalled Connection houses, the houses of prostitution scattered throughout the Italian territories; the activities carried out indoors, at home, mainly through internet connections during the Covid period; the Edict of the Oba (Re) Ewuare II, which is the supreme religious authority of the Edo people (who live in Nigeria and the Niger Delta), who issued an edict in 2018 revoking all Eidrites who did bind them trafficked girls with terrible curses. Finally, a change in the European countries where trafficking in women takes place.
With regard to the number of women met, there has been a slight decrease over the same reference period over the past few years. However, this does not mean that the phenomenon of human trafficking and labor exploitation has disappeared from our territory. On the other hand. In this period suspended due to the Covid19 health emergency which has slowed not only women but also operators it has become even more sneaky, invisible. In fact, many of the women met by the operators on the street said that they had practiced prostitution in flats and thus also lost the possibility of accessing specialist and preventive medical examinations, health accompaniments in the various structures and individual meetings.
Between welcome and protection
Relevant dates this semester include strengthening countermeasures to potential victims of trafficking in both women and men with the activation of a unit at the Casa dei Rights in Siponto and one in Foggia at the Medtraining site. Also valuable are the meeting rooms to promote the protection of rights and the hearing of potential victims, present in various places in the city of Foggia, and the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Territorial Commission for the recognition of the status of political refugee of Borgo Mezzanone and collaboration with the in Commissions scattered throughout Italy.
Again: 8 beneficiaries who are living and residing in shelters thanks to the project, which in recent months has also provided health care, psychological counseling, administrative procedures and much more. “The practice of hospitality is declining not only in the socalled inpatient hospitality, but also in the consolidation of the network with the public and private partnersubjects that offer advice, counseling, mediation and health care and also in the local community the culture of legality and the protection of the inviolable rights of the person, say the employees of the social cooperative Medtraining.
The regional project
Now in its fourth year, the project “Puglia Stop Human Trafficking Together for the Victims was launched at regional level with the aim of ensuring adequate conditions of housing, food, support, protection and social inclusion for people who are victims of human trafficking human trafficking works. The initiative financed by the Department of Equal Opportunities of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers is promoted by the Region of Apulia Department of Citizen Security, Migration Policy and Social AntiMafia in collaboration with seven antitrafficking agencies of the regional territory : the social cooperatives Medtraining (Foggia) , Community Oasi2 San Francesco onlus (Trani), Atuttotenda (MaglieLecce), Caps (Bari); giraffe associations! (Bari), Micaela (AdelfiaBari), Community of Pope John XXIII. (Brindisi).