Elena Perlino

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has declared Nigeria among the top eight countries with the highest human trafficking rates in the world. Photographer Elena Perlino has been working on this extremely important topic for many years, focusing mainly on the Italian connection since Italy has an extensive sex industry based on trafficking from Africa. Perlino’s work attempts to show the complexities and contradictions of women’s experience, documenting their daily life in Turin, Genoa, Rome, Naples and Palermo. By collecting stories of women from Benin City (Edo State) – where around 80% of trafficked women come from – this reportage bears witness to the multiple reasons behind women’s forced or willed migration. Elena Perlino has succeeded in showing a breathtaking story with elegance; this book became thus a harsh but simultanously touching portrait of one of Europe’s most horrific daily scenes.