Prostitution: hell on Ibiza

“The smell was nauseating… no windows… we had to place fans to let the smell out… completely unhealthy. Shocking,” said one of the police officers, who warned: “This is not a story of a prostitute with the intention of getting money in a self-interested way, but a story of suffering.” In this 30 square metre flat, 17 women (13 of them victims) were crammed together, as reported in 2016 by the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía; they had to share beds, sleep on the floor or on the sofa and could only go out accompanied to buy food or prostitute themselves (they had no keys), as they were under permanent control.

All the victims “were coerced and forced into prostitution and to pay the large sums of money that the organisation arbitrarily fixed and from which it profited. This was after they were tricked into undertaking a gruelling journey of thousands of kilometers, under the promise of better living conditions”, adds the sentence of the Provincial Court. The traffickers of women took advantage of the low socio-cultural and economic level of the victims, who did not even know the equivalent in naira (the Nigerian currency) the amount in euros that the gang demanded from them.

The victims: impoverished Nigerian women

All the victims were impoverished Nigerian women and believed that at the end of the journey they would have a chance to prosper as hairdressers, cleaners, seamstresses or childcare workers; they dreamed of being able to help their families. But they found the hell of sexual slavery and the impossibility of escape. The operation had been running since at least the winter of 2014, according to the sentence, which recounts that it recruited young women, even minors. The victims were subjected to a voodoo ritual and lived in terror of the consequences, terror of the consequences, for themselves and their families, of refusing to comply with the network’s orders to pay the “debt” and going to the police: death or a misfortune such as insanity.

They were subjected to a voodoo ritual and lived in terror of the consequences, for themselves and their family, of refusing to comply with the network’s orders to pay the “debt” and going to the police: death or a misfortune such as insanity

“The victims, deceived by the false promise of a better life in Europe, after being subjected to voodoo rituals as a threatening and superstitious element of control and restriction of their will and freedom of movement, were transported, first by road to North Africa [to Libya or Morocco], then crossing the Mediterranean (a journey in which their lives were in serious danger) until their arrival (some passing through Italy) in Spain”, continues the sentence. In the voodoo rituals, the gang members cut the victims so that they would bleed and pulled out hair from their heads and pubic hair.

The journey alone was terrifying for these women. Some of them took months to get from Nigeria to North Africa; they were sexually abused and assaulted . They had to board overcrowded, precarious boats, at the mercy of the waves, on the verge of sinking, without water, food or life jackets; they say they feared death on a long crossing in rough seas from which some were rescued by Italian patrol boats. There were women, those who arrived in Italy, who passed through refugee camps in Sicily, Milan, Bali or Lampedusa, from where they were then taken by a member of the plot and provided with false documentation to travel to Spain by bus, with the aim of forcing them into prostitution and to hand over everything they earned to the organisation.

In Spain they were forced to live in apartments belonging to members of the network who are unaccounted for and to people who collaborated with the gang in Fuenlabrada, Humanes (towns in Madrid), Castellón and Ibiza; they were locked up, watched, and could not go out alone.

Prostitution in Ibiza in summer

The women were moved around the country like cattle in order to get the maximum profit out of them: before the season, they were taken to Ibiza, where they were locked up in the flat in calle Pablo Picasso and in the Bon Sol Apartments, from where they only left to be prostituted. The rest of the year they were forced to work as prostitutes in the La Cantueña industrial estate in Fuenlabrada and in Castellón. They had to hand over all their earnings to pay the debt and the maintenance imposed on them by the organisation. They worked for more than 14-hours a day and if they did not make enough money, they were beaten or put on their knees for hours.

Before the season, they were transferred to Ibiza, where they were locked up in the apartment in calle Pablo Picasso  and in the Bon Sol Apartments, from where they only left to be prostituted

The network had an organization present at all stages of the women’s journey, which covered from Nigeria to Libya, Morocco, Italy, Spain (Fuenlabrada, Humanes, Castellón and Ibiza), with members who were in charge of different tasks: recruiting women, performing the voodoo rituals, controlling them, transferring them, providing them with false documentation, forcing them to practice prostitution and collecting the money they obtained.

It was a “criminal, structured and hierarchical group”, according to the sentence, which states: “The victims, who initially suffered the hardships of a journey in difficult conditions, were subjected to forced prostitution. Day after day. In a monotonous, exhausting and alienating activity. For, we insist, long periods of time. Accompanied by other victims. A significant number of them. With geographic mobility and variation in the presence of women who were part of the exploited group. Also in the people who controlled, imposed and profited by violating and restricting their freedom of movement and sexual freedom”.

In Fuenlabrada, they had to deliver a minimum of 500 euros a week, and on Ibiza, 1,000 or 1,500. On the island they were forced to prostitute themselves in Platja d’en Bossa and Sant Antoni. The Cuerpo Nacional de Policía reported in September 2016 that the organization controlled the main prostitution areas of the island. Between the two heads of the organisation (who were arrested, but fled when they were released, and have not been tried) “they had total control of street prostitution in the most exclusive areas of the island”, the police reported. These two pimps “were fully specialized in the trafficking and sexual exploitation of Nigerian citizens, an activity to which they had been dedicated for a long time”, added the note released after the police operation, which freed 21 women and arrested 23 people, and which took place in nine provinces of Spain.

Reports from social workers, psychologists and members of NGOs specialised in rescuing trafficked and sexually exploited women highlight the profound damage and trauma they have suffered as a result of the suffering and violence they have endured. In fact, some even refuse to be treated and refuse to talk about what has happened to them.

“Subhuman conditions”

Another policewoman who entered the apartment in calle Pablo Picasso testified at the trial that the victims were “in subhuman conditions” and described the scene as “desolate”: “During the process cockroaches were crawling all over me. The filth was tremendous. After 16 years in the police force, it is one of the images that has shocked me the most“. The sentence states that “it is shocking to think that the victims were forced to live for months in those conditions, while they were forced into prostitution”.

“Cockroaches were crawling all over me while I was on the stagecoach. The filth was tremendous. After 16 years in the police force, it is one of the images that has shocked me the most”

The police operation also searched an apartment in the Bon Sol Apartments, in calle Manuel de Falla on Ibiza, as well as two houses in Fuenlabrada and the disco pub LYA in this city, a house in Yuncos (Toledo) and another in Munich. This intervention, the result of an investigation by the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía, led to the arrest of 24 people -seven of them in Eivissa-, all Nigerians (twelve women and twelve men), who were charged with crimes of human rafficking, prostitution, illegal immigration, false documentation, cooperation with a criminal organization, injuries and minor injuries. Twelve of the defendants were remanded in custody without bail on August 19, 2016, two days after the police operation.

In the apartment in calle Pablo Picasso, the police officers found handwritten notes with women’s names and amounts, as well as tin money boxes full of banknotes with “a lot of money”.

The sentence of the Provincial Court of Madrid applies the mitigating circumstance of undue delay, since the proceedings were paralyzed since April 8, 2020 due to the covid pandemic, which forced the suspension of the oral trial, which finally began on October 5. This year and a half delay also allowed the two main ringleaders to flee, so it has not been possible to try them.

The ringleaders of the network, on the run from justice

Of the 24 defendants, 14 accepted plea bargains in exchange for reduced sentences, and the trial continued against another seven defendants, of whom two were acquitted, three convicted and two fled. In addition, the case against one defendant who was imprisoned in Italy was provisionally closed until he could be brought before the court. Three of the defendants fled before the trial: Rita Friday, Jennifer Ugbes and Twony Osas Aghu. In addition, on the day the trial ended (January 13, 2022), the court declared Queen Samuel in absentia, and on February 11, Joy Emokpae Kingsley in absentia. The trial took place over 25 sessions.

Among the five defendants who escaped prosecution are the two main leaders of the scheme, to whom the victims were to hand over the proceeds of prostitution, as well as members of the network who controlled the women. Ten victims testified at the trial as protected witnesses.

Janet Ebagua, alias Sylvia or Blessing, has been sentenced to 74 years of imprisonment for crimes of human trafficking for sexual exploitation and crimes related to prostitution (involving five women and one minor) and another continuous crime of illegal immigration in parrallel with the crime of falsification of official documents. Billy Ugiagbe Ogbomwan has been sentenced to 24 years of imprisonment for crimes of trafficking in human beings and another continuous crime of illegal immigration, while Efosa Idemudia has been sentenced to four years in prison for an offence of cooperation with a criminal organisation. In addition, Ebagua must compensate three victims with 60,000 euros each; and with jointly with Idemudia, three other victims with 60,000 euros each; and Ugiagbe must pay two other victims 40,000 euros each.

The situation of the victims was terrible when they arrived on Ibiza, in the seasons of 2015 and 2016: they lacked documentation and money, they were in a foreign country where they had no ties and whose language they did not know

The sentence explains that Janet Ebagua “received indications from those responsible for the scheme, controlled the movements, the schedule and the coercive exercise of prostitution by the victims, collected the money obtained and passed it to the two directors of the plot, whom she kept informed”. Efosa Idemudia made transfers of victims ordered by members of the network and provided the network with her bank account “to allow the money obtained by the network to be distributed among its members”, adds the court ruling.