Posted By Trace Reporter on 5 August 2016
A Nigerian woman, Franca Asemota, 38, found guilty of attempting
to traffic Nigerian girls through Heathrow Airport to work as sex workers in
brothels across Europe, was on Thursday sentenced to 22 years imprisonment
Asemota was convicted on Wednesday at Isleworth Crown Court on 12
counts of conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual exploitation, trafficking
persons outside of the United Kingdom for sexual exploitation and assisting
unlawful immigration.
A statement by the UK High Commission in Abuja, said five of
Asemota’s victims gave evidence against her during the trial.
One of them was rescued from prostitution in Montpellier, France,
during a joint operation by the Immigration Enforcement and the National Crime
Agency.
Detectives told the court she was part of a criminal network that
trafficked girls, boys and women from Nigeria to Europe using threats to
guarantee their compliance.
Asemota was identified as a trafficking suspect in 2012, but
fled from Italy to Nigeria when some of her co-conspirators were arrested by
Immigration Enforcement investigators.
She spent time in Europe before the NCA tracked her down to
Nigeria.
In an operation coordinated by the NCA, she was arrested by
the Economic and Financial Crime Commission in Benin in March 2015 and was
subsequently extradited to the UK in January this year, after her
identity was confirmed.
Asemota was said to have traveled with the girls on flights from
Lagos to Heathrow, between August 2011 and May 2012, with the intention of
reaching France.
They remained airside during the transit at Heathrow, so, were not
subject to Border Force passport checks. However, the trafficking attempts were
foiled when French authorities identified the girl’s false documents on arrival
in France.
David Fairclough, from the Immigration Enforcement crime team,
described the convict as the lynchpin of a trafficking ring which targeted
vulnerable young women in Nigeria.
He said, “Asemota was the lynchpin of a trafficking ring which
targeted vulnerable young women in Nigeria, promising them a brighter future
working in Europe. But it soon became clear that this was far from the truth.
The victims, some as young as 13, were told they would be sold into
prostitution. Asemota travelled with the girls in order to threaten them and
keep them in line.”
The head of the UK Human Trafficking Centre, Martin French, stated
that Asemota took advantage of her victims in some of the worst ways possible.
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