Welcomed into the "Elen Joy Sardegna" project dedicated to victims of trafficking and serious exploitation: for over 200 women and 39 men in the last 20 years, life has changed . Added to them are the unaccompanied foreign minors: another 40 which brings to 279 the people who, thanks to the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity , have rediscovered regular work, loved ones, and a finally peaceful existence.

Twenty-eight nationalities: 191 Nigerian women from street sexual exploitation, 14 from Romania, 11 men from Pakistan who were victims of labor exploitation .

This morning the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity presented the results of a commitment that began in 2003 with the first participation in the national call issued by the Department for Equal Opportunities to combat human trafficking.

"But the first welcome - says Sister Caterina Bua , legal representative and manager of the project - dates back to 1997, when the Congregation, although not yet structured to welcome this 'new poverty', decided to stay close to these exploited people".

The Elen Joy project takes its name from the first woman saved from sexual exploitation and, in recent years, it has strengthened its organization: it has 20 professionals including educators, pedagogists, psychologists, cultural mediators.

«In the reception area - says Francesca Pitzalis, coordinator of the project - there are many women who are pregnant or with children, a phenomenon which today is once again brought to the attention of the anti-trafficking network: in recent years 52 children have been welcomed with their mothers, to mostly newborns or in the 0/3 age group".

With reference to street sexual prostitution, the project operators distinguish between pre and post Covid pandemic. «Currently the presence on the street - says Valentina Sanna, contact and emergence area contact person - reaches an approximate average of 15-18 cisgender women (a person in whom biological sex and gender identity coincide, ed.) in Cagliari and 6-10 cisgender women and transgender women in the Sassari area. Regarding street prostitution, the nationalities encountered are mainly Nigerian, Romanian, Colombian, with Chinese and Dominican nationalities poorly represented."

In indoor prostitution, «the representation is significantly more varied, embracing many South American states: Colombia, Brazil, Eastern Europe (Romania in particular) while the presence of women from sub-Saharan Africa completely disappears».

In Sardinia , labor exploitation also concerns agriculture, with the phenomenon of gangmastering, livestock farming and sheep-rearing, and the tertiary sector with a high concentration in the catering and tourism sectors .

(Unioneonline/L)

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