Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

IMMIGRATION

Nurse jailed after using voodoo threat to traffick women to Germany

A British-based nurse who used the threat of voodoo on five women to traffick them from Nigeria to work as prostitutes in Germany was on Wednesday jailed for 14 years.

Published: 5 July 2018 08:56 CEST

Nurse jailed after using voodoo threat to traffick women to Germany

Rescued migrants in the Meditteranean Sea. Photo: DPA

When giving a sentence, judge Richard Bond said that Liberia-born nurse Josephine Iyamu was guilty of “vile” offences that had left her five victims in fear of their lives.

The women faced a “real and significant” risk of death as they were forced to make the journey across north Africa and the Mediterranean to Italy.

“Trafficking human beings is an ugly offence — it must always be dealt with severely by the courts to deter others from taking part in this vile trade,” said Bond.

“All five of your victims had to be rescued from the boat they were on, before being put into a camp in Italy. You understood the potential dangers, you simply did not care.”

Iyamu, 51, was found guilty under the modern slavery act at Birmingham crown court in central England. She was also convicted of perverting the course of justice while on remand, after arranging for relatives of the victims to be arrested in Nigeria.

The court earlier heard that the five women were forced to hand over money during “juju” ceremonies, where they were made eat chicken hearts and drink blood containing worms.

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

Url copied to clipboard!