Why Brussels plans to name street after murdered Nigerian s3x worker
Prostitution is not illegal in Belgium but there are no unified national rules guarding the sector.
That is why the city of Brussels has said it will name a new street after a murdered Nigerian sex worker, Eunice Osayande as part of a wider campaign to recognise women in Belgium.
The city council said the street will bear the name of Eunice Osayande, who was stabbed to death by one of her customers in June 2018.
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Drawn by the promise of work and a brighter future in Europe, Ms Osayande came to the Belgian capital in 2016.
She believed the men who invited her there were acting agents who were going to make her a film star. In reality, they were human traffickers.
Once in Brussels, she was immediately forced into prostitution. She was told she owed the smuggling gang €45,000 (£38,000; $52,000) for her transit, pimps and rent.
In the weeks leading up to her death, she had contacted a sex worker charity and told them she was experiencing violence and intimidation while working. She feared she couldn’t go to the police because she was an undocumented migrant.
In June 2018, at the age of 23, Ms Osayande was stabbed 17 times by a customer in the Gare du Nord district.
Protests led by the migrant sex worker community in Brussels soon erupted.
The marchers demanded better working conditions and called on local authorities to create clear legal guidelines for the sector.
