Nine people were arrested by the Catania Police at the end of the operation called "Bokluk", garbage in the Bulgarian language. They are held responsible, in various ways, for trafficking in persons, enslavement, criminal association aimed at exploiting prostitution, crimes aggravated, among other things, by transnationality.
The investigations had begun in June last year after two Bulgarian citizens denounced a foreign citizen for an incident concerning the payment of the rent of the roadside posts near a bar, where the girls used to prostitute themselves.
The agents then verified that the victims of trafficking were recruited at home for about 12 thousand levs (corresponding to just over 6 thousand euros). Arriving in Italy, they were placed in dilapidated houses in the San Cocimo district, in poor hygienic conditions and deprived of documents and freedom. They were fed with the bare necessities for survival and each week they guaranteed the criminal group about 1,400 euros.
The young women were defined by the torturers as "bokluk" and forced into prostitution for several hours a day: more or less from 7 to 4.30 in the morning, even during the lockdown. Beaten, subjected to abuse and the constant control of other people. In particular, the story of one of them emerged, suffering from a serious handicap and victim of indescribable violence.
(Unioneonline / ss)
