Precious was forced into prostitution

The story and the characters are fictitious. The story is adapted from real-life events.

On the street Precious came across as an ordinary prostitute. She stood by the side of a motorway leading to Rome just like tens of other women. Even though it got chilly during the night, she was dressed in a tiny thong bikini that didn’t cover up much at all. The competition for customers was intense, and the pay for each customer was only ten to twenty euros. Precious had to make herself seen and stand out, smile and shout to make the cars stop.

The women looked after each other and tried to help if a customer got violent. However, sometimes assaults could not be avoided. Sometimes a bad customer could even steal all of Precious’ money. At those times, Madame punished Precious.

Precious was tricked into coming to Europe

Precious knew that some of the women were on the street of their own free will. For them, it was a way of making money. For Precious, however, prostitution was not a choice, but a necessity. Back home in Nigeria, she had been promised a job in Italy, a good life. Even her parents had been excited about how much money Precious would be earning.

A woman that everyone called Madame Kate had visited Precious’ home driving an expensive car and dressed in luxurious clothes. She had told that she wanted to help Precious. She could even pay for Precious’ trip to Italy. After getting a job in Italy, for instance as a hairdresser, Precious could easily pay back the debt and then start sending money to her family. Soon the family would be living in a large house, their wealthy neighbours no longer picking on them.

At first, Madame Kate appeared to be a good person. She arranged everything: a passport, tickets and accommodation in Italy. When Precious arrived in Rome, she felt like she had come to paradise. She was grateful to Madame. She did not know anyone in Italy, and on her own she would not have known where to go and what to do. Precious had no money of her own, so she was completely dependent on Madame for accommodation and living.

Precious takes a voodoo oath

In Italy, Madame became a completely different person. She told that Precious owed her 40,000 euros for the trip and other arrangements. Precious could pay the debt by selling sex. Precious was shocked and begged Madame for mercy. That was the first time Madame and the man working as her security guard beat Precious up. Then the man raped Precious. He said he was teaching Precious the tricks of the trade.

Madame took some of Precious’ hair, pubic hair, nail pieces and skin. She made Precious drink blood-like liquid, and Precious had to swear to obey Madame, to pay her debt to Madame, and not to tell anyone about it. If Precious were to break the oath, she and her family would suffer of madness and poverty and finally experience painful deaths. This was black magic, juju. To Precious it was for real.

After being given very revealing clothes, Precious was taken outside town to the side of a large motorway. There she started selling sex. The money she made she paid to Madame every night. Money couldn’t be hidden, because Madame also searched her body cavities. Precious knew that she sometimes brought Madame quite a lot of money. Still the debt just didn’t get any smaller. Precious felt that she might be spending the rest of her life on the side of that road.