Student visa regulations are not strict in the Occupied Territories. Proof of enrollment at the university is sufficient to issue a visa.
Human trafficking of young women from Nigeria in the occupied territories, the Nigerian National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Human Beings and the Turkish Human Rights Platform complain. They speak of human trafficking networks operating between Nigeria and the occupied territories. The issue was brought to the surface by the Turkish Cypriot “Halkin Sesi”.
Traffickers promise Nigerian youths, mostly women, University education and job opportunities in occupied Cyprus.
However, once they reach the occupied territories, the promises fall apart.
Prostitution rings
Once the female students arrive in the occupied territories, they are locked in private apartments and forced into prostitution. According to Human Rights Platform data, Nigerians account for 70% of human trafficking cases, from November 2021 to date, and all are victims of sex trafficking.
According to the Turkey-based Human Rights Platform, in March 2020 the pseudo-state criminalized human trafficking, but the occupying “authorities” are reluctant to investigate such cases.
There is absolutely no legal framework to protect and assist victims of human trafficking, and there is no shelter for victims. In rare cases, victims are rescued, but are left without help and protection from the “authorities” of the pseudo-state.
Victims who come to occupied Cyprus on student visas are tricked by agents who are used as fronts by human traffickers and convince them to go to occupied Cyprus to study.
The regulations for issuing a student visa are not strict, compared to other countries. The visa can be issued, mainly, only with a proof of enrollment at the university. Traffickers capitalize on lax visa procedures to traffic Nigerians, particularly young women, into the territories.
Women victims of trafficking in the occupied territories seek refuge in the authorities of the Republic of Cyprus.
SIGMA contacted the former head of the Trafficking in Persons Department of the Police, MP Rita Theodorou Superman.
As Ms. Superman mentioned, “Nigerian girls are definitely being trafficked all over Europe and it was a huge phenomenon for many years and I think it still is. So the occupied territories will not be out of the equation, I’m sure, because it is also very easy to exploit the occupied territories.”
Fill in that “many girls arrived in the free areas of the Republic from the occupied territories and I still think they are arriving. When I was in charge of the office, we recognized several cases of women who were exploited by the occupied territories and then, either with the help of some NGOs or by themselves, they managed to reach the free areas”.
Due to the scale of the issue, Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons is warning Nigerians approached for university education in the occupied territories to be extra cautious.
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