UAE: Two expats jailed for life for luring maids and forcing them into prostitution

The illegal activity came to light when two girls tried to escape from the apartment they were locked in.

Alamy file

Afkar Ali Ahmed

Published: Wed 23 Feb 2022, 9:14 AM

Last updated: Wed 23 Feb 2022, 9:15 AM

Two foreign nationals have been sentenced to life imprisonment in UAE for forcing girls into prostitution.

A 38-year-old Asian man and 36-year-old Asian woman were sentenced by the Ajman Criminal Court to life imprisonment followed by deportation for luring housemaids by offering them help to abscond from their sponsors -- but instead from them into prostitution.

According to police records, two Asian girls tried to escape from an apartment on the second floor in Al Nuaimiya -- by tying up bed sheets together to get down.

The first fell on the ground and broke her pelvis that led to excessive bleeding, while the second girl fell on a balcony on the first floor, getting slightly injured. The noise woke up the owners of the apartment, who then called the police. The girls were rushed to the hospital, followed by the arrest of the accused.

The two accused were identified as S.S and T.N.

Modus operandi

Police investigations showed that the defendants used to lure victims by offering them a job and helping to escape from their legal sponsors. They transported them from another emirate to Ajman after assuring them of a job in a cleaning company.

They would provide 'shelter' to the absconding girls in a locked apartment -- forbidding them to go out. The accused then used to exploit their vulnerable situation by forcing them into prostitution.

One of the victims, Asian national M.N, told the court: “I was working as a maid and ran away from my sponsor, and I got to know the second defendant, who brought me to the apartment in Ajman on the condition that she would employ me in a company for cleaning work -- but she put me in the apartment, locked me up and prevented me from leaving.

"She told me that due to the ongoing Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, there was no other work except in prostitution, forcing me to work for three weeks."

Narrating her ordeal, the victim added that the first accused was watching over the girls inside the room on the day she planned her escape with another girl. Her fall into another apartment's balcony alerted the tenants, who called the police, bringing the illegal activity to light.

The second victim (N.S) of Asian nationality recounted the same story to the court on how she was lured like the other girls, before being forced into the flesh trade due to their dire financial situation.