The department TE of the Federal Intelligence Service deals with terrorism and organized crime. And also for migration, the analysts are responsible, they should investigate "causes and effects", as it is called on the homepage of the secret service.
In a confidential report, which the SPIEGEL has seen, the BND warns that mafia organizations from Nigeria could spread in Germany. The strong influx of Nigerian asylum seekers, who increasingly traveled from Italy to the Federal Republic, will lead to a sprouting of "extremely brutally acting Nigerian structures of organized crime," says the intelligence service, citing its own findings and those of other security agencies.
In 2018, more than 10,000 Nigerians applied for asylum in Germany, which represents an increase of 30 percent compared to the previous year. Experts from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) and the Federal Police attribute this development primarily to the so-called secondary migration within Europe. According to this, many Nigerian refugees, mainly from Italy, where more than 100,000 people are now registered from the African country, are moving further north. One of their main destination countries is Germany.
Criminal groups from Nigeria such as the Supreme Eiye Confraternity or Black Ax have formed in recent years in Italy already solid structures and act there sometimes "at eye level" with the domestic mafia, analyzed the BND. In Italy and Spain, the police and the judiciary regarded these gangs as a particular threat. The criminal organizations were now trying to expand their criminal activities to Germany. Among Nigerian migrants, according to the BND report, there are many victims of traffickers who bring huge profits to criminals.
The International Organization for Migration estimates that as many as 80 percent of Nigerian-born women who can reach Europe are sexually exploited. Smugglers force them into prostitution, often involving psychological violence and voodoo rituals . According to investigators, women have to work out enormous sums of money, which most of them members of criminal organizations lose again. More than 90 percent of women trafficked from Nigeria to Europe are from Benin City , according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
According to BND findings, Nigerian traffickers are now relocating refugees to Europe via the West Mediterranean route. However, more and more often papers from compatriots who are already in Europe are used to smuggle similar-looking people by plane.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and has the greatest economic power of all Sub-Saharan countries. Yet almost two-thirds of Nigerians live in extreme poverty.
