UK-based nurse used threat of voodoo to force Nigerian women into sex work
A UK court has sentenced a Liberian-born nurse to 14 years for leading a sex trafficking ring that forced Nigerian women to work in German brothels. The nurse threatened her victims with voodoo magic to keep them quiet.
A Liberian-born British woman was sentenced to 14 years under UK's modern slavery law on Wednesday, after a jury found her guilty of running a sex trafficking operation and perverting the course of justice. The ruling in Birmingham is the first such conviction involving victims outside Great Britain.
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The 51-year-old Josephine Iyamu, also known as Madame Sandra, recruited women from rural Nigeria. In Nigeria's Benin City, she set up an organization campaigning for better lives for women and families, allowing her to get in contact with vulnerable women. After selecting candidates for trafficking, she would promise them a better life in Europe.
Iyamu forced at least five Nigerian women to swear an oath of allegiance to her before starting their journey to the European Union. The women took part in a "juju" ceremony performed by a voodoo priest, which included them eating chicken hearts, drinking blood containing worms, and having their skin cut with razor blades. They would promise to pay Iyamu's gang up to €38,000 ($44,000) for their passage to Germany and to not run away or go to the police.
