Elena met Mister Y. in her home country Romania. She presented the young Turkish man to her parents und travelled with him to Germany, where she worked in his coffeehouse as a waitress. He had promised her 500 Euro as monthly pay. She worked daily for 12 to 15 hours.

The “Loverboy” method is one of the most common methods used by such “charming princes” like Andrei to recruit vulnerable women like Maria and force them into prostitution. For women like Maria, breaking free from the chain of human trafficking is always difficult. The barriers which arise are linked to fear of consequences, lack of trust in people, lack of prospects, lack of financial resources, lack of knowing a foreign language.  

While the above lines have only illustrated the very typical East – European – German cases, recruitments can be very different ranging from false promises of a better life to use of force, exploitation of addictions and/or administration of drugs, or even abduction. 

German Police Authorities picked up a total of 68 victims of human trafficking of the Nigerian network of human traffickers. They were the largest group among African victims. There were 41 nigerian suspects in 2018, according to the Federal Police. These women from Nigeria see a lot of violence on their journey to Europe and have to survive life-threatening situations.