Migrant reception centers in Italy are quickly becoming glorified holding pens for women who will soon be sold into prostitution rings across Europe. Most of the women who fall victim to these schemes are minors who are simply looking for a better life in the West.

The grim findings, expressed by the United Nations' International Office for Migration (IOM). According to the IOM, almost 80 percent of Nigerian women who arrived in Italy by would end up being sold into human trafficking rings in the country and across Europe. The IOM further stated that at this point, the state of affairs has now reached "crisis" levels.

In an interview with The Guardian, anti-trafficking expert at the IOM Simona Moscarelli described the current state of Nigerian women who are arriving on Italy's shores.

"What we have seen this year is a crisis, it is absolutely unprecedented and is the most significant increase in the number of Nigerian women arriving in Italy for 10 years," she said.

"Our indicators are the majority of these women are being deliberately brought in for sexual exploitation purposes. There has been a big enhancement of criminal gangs and trafficking networks engaging in the sexual exploitation of younger and younger Nigerian girls."

While the sex trafficking rings in Europe have been preying on immigrant girls from countries like Nigeria for the past few decades, the massive influx of refugees during the last couple of years have made it far easier for human traffickers to pick out and pick up their victims.

This year alone, the number of Nigerian women who arrived by boat to Italy number almost 4,000 as of writing. Last year, the total number was 5,633, and the year before that, just 1,500. With the spike in human trafficking, a significant  number of these women have gone missing over the years.

"There is little understanding of the dynamics and nature of this form of trafficking. The reception centers are not good places for trafficked women. Just last week six girls went missing from a reception center in Sicily, they were just picked up in a car and driven away," Moscarelli said.

"The women we are seeing are increasingly young, many are unaccompanied minors when they arrive and the violence and exploitation they face when they are under the control of these gangs is getting worse. They are really treated like slaves."

Deputy chief prosecutor Salvatore Vella, one of the region's leading voices against the practice of human trafficking, described the mobsters' modus operandi further.

"The mobsters just come to the camp and pick women up. As easy as going to a grocery store. That's what these women are treated like, objects to trade, buy, exploit and resell and the reception centers are acting as a sort of warehouse where these girls are temporarily stocked," he said. 

Tags: nigerian women prostitution un human trafficking