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26 teenage girls found dead in the Mediterranean Sea
The bodies of 26 girls, aged between 14 to 18, were recovered over the weekend. Investigators consider physical and sexual abuse as one of the most likely causes behind their deaths
Migrants disembark from the Spanish ship Cantabria in the harbour of Salerno, Italy, on Sunday (Photo: EPA)
Italian authorities are investigating the deaths of 26 teenage girls, whose bodies were found in the Mediterranean Sea, reported NRP.
Prosecutors believe they may have been sexually abused and murdered as they attempted to travel from Niger and Nigeria to Italy.
The BBC also reported that five migrants are currently being questioned by Italian officials about the deaths.
The victims ranged in age from 14 to 18. Autopsies will be conducted tomorrow, said Salerno’s head of police.
According to a recent article published by Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, it has become increasingly common for Nigerian girls and women to be brought to Italy by sex traffickers.
"The rate of human trafficking continues to rise in Europe at a staggering rate, and many of these victims are coming from Nigeria. Indeed, in 2016 along, over 11,000 Nigerian women and girls either crossing the African continent or traveling by boat, arrived into Italy, where traffickers are waiting to ensnare and entrap them," said Dr John DeGarmo, human trafficking and leading foster care expert and Director of the Foster Care Institute in an email statement.
"Many of these victims are fleeing a life of violence and extreme poverty for the promise of a better life style, of a dream of finding success. European nations such as Romania, Italy, and Greece have seen the largest increase in human trafficking. Most of these victims are between the ages of 14 and 18," DeGarmo added,
Twenty-three of the victims were reportedly on a boat with 64 migrants who survived.
Over the weekend, reported CNN, 400 migrants were rescued from the Mediterranean over the weekend and brought to Salerno.
Though the possibility of sex trafficking is being investigated, Police Prefect Malfi noted that sex traffickers do not typically put all their victims on the same boat.
Malfi stated: “Loading women onto a boat is too risky, the traffickers would not do it as they could lose all their ‘goods’ – as they describe them – in one fell swoop”.
"They were on a dinghy that was also carrying men," Malfi added. Migrant expert Sine Plambech of Columbia University said that it's more common for women to die when crossing the Mediterranean.
The International Organisation for Migration’s most recent tally reports that 2,839 migrants have lost their lives this year on the very same route as the 26 teens.
