Criminal gangs are using witchcraft spells to force vulnerable African women and girls as young as 15 to work in British and European brothels.

Traffickers lure their victims into rituals in which samples of their blood, teeth, hair and nail clippings are mixed with other “magical” ingredients, according to former prostitutes ensnared by witchcraft.

Victims are told the rituals will protect them on their way to a better life in Britain. They are later forced into prostitution and told the spells will kill them if they try to escape.

They may also be threatened that breaking the witchcraft oaths will make spirits harm members of their families. The practice is “juju”, a form of voodoo black magic in Nigeria, where such rituals still exert strong influence.

Dr Michael Korzinski, a counsellor with the Helen Bamber Foundation, a charity helping victims of torture, said: “This is a lethal combination of criminal networks and so-called juju priests.”

The charity, funded entirely by donations, has dealt with about 30 women who say they were subjected to juju curses.

“The girl’s own bodily fluids, her pubic hair and nail shavings are used,” said Korzinski. “A whole variety of things are used to create this potion that they are then forced to drink or spread on their bodies. It can happen in the country of origin and it can happen in the UK.”

Last week Sara, 24, a Nigerian victim, said a trafficker had promised to take her to Europe and get her a job when she was 19: “He took me to the juju man before we went. He was in a smelly hut in the outskirts of Lagos and wearing a red cloak.

“He cut me with a razor blade on my back and on my breasts and took my blood. He cut my hair from my head and also from my armpits.”

The trafficker told her she would be reunited with her body parts once she had repaid the debt she incurred in being taken to Europe. He warned that if she returned to Nigeria before doing so she would die and her spirit would be cast into hell.

Korzinski said: “People here in the West do not understand the power these belief systems have over people like Sara.” Only after counselling and the blessings of a Church of England priest did Sara begin to believe that her curse had been lifted.

Another victim of traffickers was Mary, now 32, a Nigerian who was brought to Britain in 2005. Speaking last week at the Poppy Project, a charity for trafficked women, she told how she had been targeted by traffickers when she sought sanctuary at a church in Lagos after her husband threatened to kill her.

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