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Dutch police have arrested 13 people suspected of smuggling numerous young girls out of Nigeria and using their fear of voodoo to force them to work as prostitutes, the Dutch public prosecutor said on Wednesday.
The arrests were part of an international police swoop that included arrests in New York, Madrid, Antwerp and the English city Coventry, he said.
A total of 20 people were involved in smuggling people, mostly young girls, from Nigeria to other parts of the world via Dutch asylum centres.
"The under-age girls were forced to promise a voodoo priest in Nigeria (they would) pay off a so-called debt," the prosecutor said.
During the Dutch raids, police found 10 illegal immigrants in the houses of the suspects they arrested.
The people-smuggling ring had probably been active for years, the prosecutor said. The Dutch police began investigating the disappearance of young asylum seekers in January 2006, and about 140 under-age Nigerians, mostly girls, had disappeared since then, he said.
- REUTERS
