ABSTRACT
In 1994 Team Afrika was set up within the Gendarmerie of the Belgian police, a team that exclusively investigates Nigerian prostitution networks, which was later integrated into the Federal Judicial Police. It came as a response to the observed and steadily growing presence of young Nigerian women in prostitution in Brussels. Ghanaian women have been known to emigrate to work in prostitution, e.g. in Abidjan in Ivory Coast, which means being away from their families. A large proportion of the existing literature regarding prostitution and African women in Europe, except for the works of researchers such as Altink, Adomoko-Ampofo, and Siegel and de Blank, is solely focused on Nigerian women. Whether this is as a result of their presence in Europe being unique to Belgium and the Netherlands or whether this is just under-researched is yet to be known.
