8th September, 2015
A young Nigerian prostitute in Russia who identified herself as Blessing, has narrated how she was beaten by Russian clients to force her to have sex with them.
In her moving story published on the internet by a Russian photographer, Tatiana Egorova, to draw world attention to the plight of Nigerian prostitutes in Russia, Blessing disclosed that she was always beaten anytime she refused to have sex with a client by her pimp.
Narrating how she was forced into prostitution in Russia, Blessing, 23, who spent two years in Russia as a prostitute, disclosed that she was deceived by her best friend who took her to Russia on a promise of securing a good job.
“I had to leave school as my family is very poor. My father works as a driver, and my mother sells in the market. I put my braiding skills to practice to earn some money, but I still wanted to get an education.
“My best friend told me about an opportunity to study for free in Russia. However, when I arrived, my friend sold me to a Russian woman and her Nigerian companion. They used to beat me and leave me outside without clothes to freeze when I refused to serve clients.
“I even begged my clients to help me, but they did nothing. When my father found out about my sex slavery in Russia, he said I should blame myself for becoming a prostitute,” Blessing said.
Through Egorova’s help, Blessing was able to get a new passport at the Federal Migration Service after she agreed to be deported to Nigeria.
“I’m afraid to come back home as my pimp called my mother and said I owed them a lot of money,” Blessing disclosed several days before she came back to Nigeria.
Blessing who is now in Nigeria said she would rather die than becoming a prostitute again. “You never know what a client would do to you. He could beat, torture, throw you down the stairs or even kill, and you would never see your family again,” the rescued former prostitute added.
Investigations revealed that Blessing and other Nigerian girls practicing prostitution in Russia were tricked into the country by friends, relatives and agents of Nigerian pimps in Russia.
Blessing and three other Nigerian girls who travelled to Russia to either study or work to earn money to support their families back home but forced into prostitution in Russia were part of a photo project of Egorova about victims of huuman trafficking in Russia.
The girls were rescued by a charity organization who provided them accommodation in a dormitory and paid for their new passports.
The organisation revealed that the majority of Nigerians who unwillingly become prostitutes in Russia don’t understand local language and afraid to go to the police, adding that the only way for them to survive is to submit and do the biddings of their pimps.
—Culled from Naij.com