The Belgium capital, Brussels, is naming a street after Eunice Osayande, a sex worker who was killed by one of her customers in 2018. The Nigerian woman came to Brussels in 2016, lured by a group of men who promised to make her a film star. The men were actually human traffickers, BBC reported.

After arriving at the capital, Osayande was forced into prostitution. The perpetrators then told the 23-year-old that she owes them $52,000 for her transit, pimps and rent. Osayande contacted a sex worker charity a short time later, saying she was experiencing violence while working.

The African native later died when she was stabbed 17 times by a customer in the Gare du Nord district in June 2018. Advocates have since rallied together to demand the city to protect women, particularly undocumented migrants.

"Eunice's death has been extremely distressing, especially for undocumented migrants in the area where she worked," Maxime Maes, director of the UTSOPI sex workers union in Brussels, told the BBC. "The area has seen increasing violence and the most marginalized women are targeted."

Ville de Bruxelles : une rue portera le nom d’une prostituée, Eunice Osayande https://t.co/PK1Lt1TIER
pic.twitter.com/szO6loVGoq

— BX1 – Actu (@BX1_Actu) September 14, 2021

While a 17-year-old man charged for Osayande's killing awaits trial, four members of the trafficking ring were arrested earlier this year and sentenced to four years in prison.

The City of Brussels said it's now honoring the Nigerian native to draw attention to all the "forgotten women who are victims of human trafficking, sexual violence and femicides." Officials are also naming other Brussels streets after notable women.

Ans Persoons, a city official in the capital, said 42% of Belgian women between the ages of 16 and 69 have experienced physical sexual violence at some point.

"This percentage is much higher among sex workers. And that is precisely why Eunice Osayande gets a street," Persoons said.

The street which will bear Osayande's name is under construction. Sex workers and members of the migrant community will be invited to speak at the inauguration when the street officially opens in the next few months.

According to the National Library of Medicine, sex workers have a 45- 75% chance of experiencing sexual violence during their lifetime. They also have a 32- 55% chance of experiencing sexual violence in a given year.

The disturbing trend is seen in several cities in the US. In Phoenix, 37% of prostitution diversion program participants said they have been raped by a client. A similar result was found in Miami, where 34% of street-based sex workers said they faced violent encounters with clients in the past 90 days before they were surveyed, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Additionally, 46% of indoor sex workers in New York said they were being forced to do something by a client that they did not want to do, HuffPost reported.

Eunice Osayande

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