Sarah Adeyinka

Contrary to dominant policy narratives that frame return as an endpoint to trafficking-related harm, this article demonstrates how return marks the reorganization rather than the resolution of structural violence. This article conceptualizes violence not only as interpersonal harm, but as structural, evolving, and gendered, embedded in political, legal, and institutional systems that extend through migration, transit, and return. Drawing on forty-one interviews with Nigerian female victims of trafficking (VoT), the findings show how gendered structural violence manifests across the migration trajectories through four interconnected mechanisms: bureaucratic violence (institutional denial of victimhood), territorial violence (zones of abandonment), labor violence (economic exclusion), and gendered violence (stigmatization and symbolic harm). While extreme physical and sexual exploitation characterized experiences in Libya, return to Nigeria did not interrupt violence; instead, harm was reorganized through bureaucratic exclusion, social rejection, fragmented integration systems, and inadequate psychosocial care. Only four of the forty-one VoT interviewed in this research were officially recognized as victims, illustrating how institutional frameworks condition access to protection and systematically deny victimhood. By conceptualizing trafficking journeys as structurally continuous regimes of harm, this article contributes to migration studies debates on return governance and the conditionality of victim recognition within contemporary migration regimes.

In 2018, the Oba (King) of Benin city in Edo state (Nigeria), a spiritual and traditional leader with significant authority, made a public, spiritual declaration on Nigerian human traffickers (especially those originating from Edo state) and proclaimed that victims of trafficking who were bound by oaths taken during the juju rituals were free. The Nigerian trafficking network relies mainly on juju as a control mechanism to keep the victims bound and subservient to them. Based on repeated in-depth interviews with young Nigerian women and teenager teenage victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation, this article discusses how juju is used by the trafficking networks to keep their victims exploited, enslaved and indebted. Concurrently, the participants’ narratives also illustrate the important impact of the declaration of the Oba for some women and teenagers in their process to leave the trafficking networks.

Nigerian girls and women constitute a large percentage of African victims of human trafficking in Italy. Extensive research has been conducted on the causes, push-and-pull factors, and the perpetrators in the phenomenon of trafficking Nigerian women and girls into Italy. However, limited data exist on the women and girls’ narratives of their experiences during their migratory journey from Nigeria to Europe. Using data collected through a mixed method, longitudinal design, 31 female Nigerian victims of trafficking in Italy were interviewed for this study. This study gives voice to the experiences of sexual violence that these women and girls encounter during transit, leading to many of them arriving in Italy severely traumatized. It also discusses the health impact of these experiences and the different survival strategies that they are forced to employ. The study shows how sexual and physical violence is employed by smugglers, traffickers, and people in authority alike. It shows that the violence experienced along the way does not end after arrival in the destination country (in this case, Italy), but is, in some cases, exacerbated and similar to previous experiences of violence.

This dissertation comprises two studies: the European Research Council-funded ChildMove Project, which studied the impact of transit experiences on the psychological wellbeing of unaccompanied refugee minors, and the Sub-Saharan Women In Prostitution Ethnographic Research (swipser) Project on the wellbeing of Nigerian and Ghanaian women working in prostitution in the red-light district of Brussels, funded by the municipality of Schaerbeek, Brussels. The ChildMove Project has various aspects: the present study focused on the complex experiences of Nigerian victims of trafficking in Italy. To better understand respondents’ experiences during their migration trajectories, we employed a multi-site, longitudinal approach which included semi-structured interviews with the participants. Using a multi-method ethnographic approach, the swipser Project highlights the experiences of Nigerian and Ghanaian women working in the red-light district of Brussels: their daily challenges and how those challenges impact their wellbeing. Both studies discuss the challenges, violent experiences and stigmatisation that the respondents encounter, as well as their coping strategies and their inability to escape the labelling and abuse that they experience, even though the migration journey has ended for many but continues for others.

Studies have reported alarmingly high rates of traumatic experiences for refugee populations. While nearly all refugees experienced trauma in their country of origin, a vast majority of those seeking protection abroad also face (extreme) violence during their journeys and once in the country of destination. By concentrating on the migratory experiences of about 300 unaccompanied minors that we approached in Libya, Italy, Greece, and Belgium, this article analyses how different forms of violence are inflicted on these young migrants while moving to Europe. By concentrating on personal accounts of (recurrent) interactions with the EU migration and border management tools, we reveal the structural violence within the day-to-day governance of migration. Often framed as unintended or accidental, the article discusses how violence is instead ubiquitous, as it is systematically inflicted on migrants—including unaccompanied minors—in the form of repeated series of violent events or “loops of violence.” Importantly, such manifestations of violence are perpetrated by key institutional and non-institutional actors in the “migration industry” who are (in)directly involved in managing migration both inside and outside of the EU. Conceptually, we rely on K. E. Dempsey’s political geography of the different typologies of violence within Europe’s governance of migration and asylum and use it to concentrate on key transitional phases/fractures in migratory trajectories—i.e., as unaccompanied young migrants (try to) cross international borders and legal boundaries.

Background: Unaccompanied young refugees constitute an especially vulnerable population, reporting high rates of trauma and mental health problems. There is a significant gap in the literature on trauma and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in unaccompanied young refugees who are still on the move and live in precarious circumstances such as refugee camps. This study therefore aimed to contribute to this gap by investigating pre- and peri-migration (potentially) traumatic experiences of unaccompanied young refugees; longitudinal trajectories of trauma, daily stressors and PTSS; and the impact of gender, trauma, and daily stressors on PTSS over time. Methods: This longitudinal, mixed-method, and multi-country study was conducted in various settings (e.g. refugee camps, reception centers) across nine European countries. A heterogeneous sample of N = 187 unaccompanied young refugees (78.4% male) from 29 different countries was assessed via interviews at 3 time-points during a period of 27 months. Data was analyzed via growth curve modelling. Results: Prevalence rates of (potentially) traumatic experiences ranged from 29.5 to 91.9%. Peri-migration traumatization remained stable over time (b = − 0.02; p = 0.371), but the number of reported daily stressors (b = − 0.24; p = 0.001) and PTSS scores significantly decreased over time (b = − 0.98; p = 0.004). Females reported higher PTSS compared with males at baseline (p = 0.002), but gender did not influence the longitudinal trajectory of PTSS. The pre-migration trauma load and daily stressors at baseline did not have a significant effect on PTSS at baseline or on the longitudinal trajectory. Conclusions: This is the first study to document not only the high numbers of traumatic events for unaccompanied young refugees pre- and peri- migration, but also the continued traumatization during flight, as well as high rates of daily stressors and PTSS. Humanitarian and political assistance is urgently needed to curb the often life-threatening conditions unaccompanied young refugees face during migration.

Previous research has shown the drastic impact of daily stressors on the mental health of unaccompanied young refugees (UYRs). This longitudinal study contributes to existing literature by distinguishing different kinds of daily stressors and examining their impact over time, in relation to stressful life events, legal status, and contact with family. We recruited N = 189 UYRs from diverse backgrounds in Greece, Italy, and Belgium, and conducted two additional waves of interviews, accompanying them for approximately 2 years on their migratory and settlement trajectories throughout Europe. Data were analyzed via growth curve modeling. Results showed that both material and social stressors have a long-term negative effect on anxiety and depression symptoms, while stressful life events only have a significant effect in the beginning of UYRs' trajectories. Having long-term documents and contact with family alleviate symptoms of depression. We discuss how these findings relate to previous research and what they imply for policy-makers and practitioners in the field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

This book unravels the lives, needs and experiences of Nigerian and Ghanaian women working in prostitution in Brussels. This volume casts a light on the working conditions and the experiences of 38 women of Nigerian and Ghanaian origin, whose daily struggles and challenges are recalled from interviews in the field. Working within the red-light district of Brussels, an area with high crime rates and lacking in basic healthcare provision, the women are faced with a number of issues on a daily basis, ranging from security and health-related concerns, to work-related stress, discrimination and perceived stigma. Full voice is given to their stories, as well as contributions from state actors and local inhabitants, with the chief aim of building safe and healthy places for both residents and workers alike. The authors conclude in presenting clear recommendations and tools for practitioners and policy makers, designed to improve the outcomes of migrant women working not just within the red-light district of Brussels, but also within wider European and global contexts. This book will be of particular interest for researchers and students of Migration Politics, Development Studies, Social Work and Sociology, as well as a useful guide for policy makers and practitioners in the field.