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 travelled 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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