Nigerian Women Come To Italy For Honest Work But End Up As Prostitutes

Police control find a Nigerian woman working as a prostitute in the outskirt of Turin
Nigerian women who came to Italy to work as nannies or in factories often end up working the streets as prostitutes.
Paris-based photographer Elena Perlino, originally from Italy, decided to highlight their plight to the world. She began to notice the presence of young African women working on the streets during her commutes from Turin.
She said: "I decided to start from this surreal vision to tell a story. I have been working on the topic for several years, focusing mainly on the Italian connection."

According to Perlino, many Nigerian women come to Italy hoping to make enough money from honest work as nannies or factory workers to support their families back home, but are tricked by traffickers into working in the sex trade. Arrests, violence and abuse often follow.