The European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered the Spanish government to pay a €27,000 compensation fee to a yet-to-be-named Nigerian lady who was trafficked into the country as a teenager.
The court, in its October 10 ruling, ordered the Spanish government to pay the sum to the Nigerian after it confirmed Spanish officials failed to carry out a thorough investigation when the lady had first reported to them that she had been trafficked from Nigeria to Spain as a minor, and then subsequently forced into prostitution.
The Nigerian was trafficked as a 14-year-old to the European country in 2003. Before leaving Nigeria, the parents of her trafficker, whose name was also not mentioned, had performed a “Juju ritual” on her, telling her she would die if she reported her being trafficked to the police when she got to Spain.
Prior to this, she was informed she would be taken to Spain “to work” and she would pay a total of €70,000 to the trafficker from the wages she earned there. More importantly, the trafficker did not tell her the nature of the job.
However, when she eventually arrived in Spain with a forged adult passport, she was forced into prostitution and all the income she made went directly to the trafficker. This happened between 2003 and 2007.
She eventually managed to escape from her traffickers in 2007, receiving assistance that included housing and healthcare from a Spain-based non-government organisation until she was able to lodge a formal human trafficking and sexual exploitation complaint against her traffickers in 2011.
However, the Spanish government would, after six years of investigation, provisionally dismiss her case in 2017, terming it “superficial and insufficiently reasoned”.
The Nigerian then subsequently lodged an application with the European Human Rights Court on April 20, 2021, alleging that the Spanish authorities had failed to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for subjecting her to human trafficking.
During proceedings, the Court was able to establish that the Nigerian lady had indeed been a victim of human trafficking and forced prostitution.
The Court also concluded that the Spanish authorities’ actions during its investigations reflected a blatant disregard for the duty to investigate serious allegations of human trafficking, an offence with devastating consequences for its victims.
In the end, the Court’s seven judges from France, Georgia, Monaco, Spain, Ukraine, Luxembourg and Ireland ordered Spain to pay a €15,000 compensation to the Nigerian in respect of non-pecuniary damage and another €12,000 for costs and expenses.
Credit: FIJ
