'Mother forced daughters to work as masseuses'

Dubai - She allegedly sold her teenager for Dh8,000

A Pakistani woman, 37, is standing trial on a human trafficking charge for allegedly sexually exploiting her 15-year-old daughter and forcing her to provide massage services to men.
The woman, S.K., is believed to have fooled her two daughters saying she would enroll them in a college in Dubai and thus managed to convince them to travel to Dubai.
S.K. is being charged in the Court of First Instance together with four Pakistani men, including the owner of a health club, Z.A, 41. S.K. and Z.A. are being charged in absentia.
The teenager, a student, told investigators that when she and her sister arrived at Sharjah Airport in May last year, her mother told them that they would have to work in the club as masseuses until their acceptance letter came from the college. But that never happened.
She and her sister were kept in a flat in Bur Dubai, rented by Z.A.
The student said in her statement that Z.A. and her mother beat them with a stick and slapped them repeatedly and even pulled her sister by force into his car one morning to go to the massage centre.
"Z.A. tried to force us to give massage to naked men but since we refused to do so, he told us to just massage their head and legs," she said.
She also learnt from the working masseuses that her mother was being paid to have sex with customers.
S.K. send them back to Pakistan but when they joined a college there, the mother again forced them to return to Dubai.
Once here, they were forced to stay in Z.A.'s flat. At work, some customers tried to sexually assault the two girls but they would push them away and scratch them.
She recounted how the owner forced her to massage men. He would pay her mother Dh1,000 a month and at times just Dh500.
She tried to call the police a couple of times but was stopped by one of the men who worked at the centre, who is now on trial.
She was rescued when labour inspectors raided the club in Al Karama and they learnt that she was forced to work there.
A police lieutenant said that on June 5, he and another inspector visited the club and claimed they wanted a massage.
When one of the defendants offered him women, including the teenager, to do that, they showed their inspectors' IDs.
The officer quoted the girl as telling him that her mother had given her away to the owner for Dh8,000.
The hearing has been adjourned to March 31.
mary@khaleejtimes.com