Duo jailed for forcing 16-year-old girl into prostitution in Dubai

She was promised a job at a hairdressing salon.

A man and a woman, both Bangladeshis, aged 30 and 33, were each sentenced to seven years in jail on a human trafficking charge by the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.
The court earlier heard that the duo tricked a 16-year-old girl into travelling to Dubai and later forced her into prostitution.
They made the victim believe she would work at a hairdressing salon when they arranged for her to leave their home country.
The duo had also arranged for a forged passport, in which she was given an older age. However, after welcoming her at the airport, they seized her passport and took her to a flat in Al Mutteena where she was locked up and forced to meet men for paid sex.
According to public prosecution records, the minor victim became mentally ill because of what she endured.
The two defendants have been referred to the Court of Misdemeanors for having sex outside wedlock.
The 33-year-old woman and a 27-year-old Indonesian woman were both handed a six-month imprisonment term for working in prostitution.
A third woman, 34-year-old Bangladeshi, who failed to report about the victim's plight, was sentenced to six months in jail.
All of the defendants will be deported.
The arrest was made on December 6, 2018, in Al Muraqqabat.
A police lieutenant said they were tipped-off about a Bangladeshi man who was holding up an underage girl from his country at a flat in Al Muteena area and forcing her to work as a prostitute. "Our informer lured the main accused out of the flat and got the key from him. We entered the flat and found the victim with other females."  
The lieutenant recounted: "We noticed that the victim did not look she was fine. She was talking to herself at times, looking up and laughing for no reason and then suddenly praying."
The police found the victim's passport and travel ticket kept under a pillow on the defendant's bed.
The defendant denied he was forcing the victim into paid sex and claimed she was a flatmate. "He claimed he beat and tied her up her because she was annoying him and refusing to eat."
A Bangladeshi woman, who was found staying in the flat, told the police she did not report the man for forcing the victim into prostitution because she was an illegal resident. The woman also claimed she was scared of the main defendant who threatened to call the police on her. "That woman said the victim could not walk normally after being made to work in the flesh trade and fell ill," the officer told the prosecutor. The same woman recalled she overheard the defendants saying that they made the victim have sex with 120 men.
A medical report from a hospital showed that the victim suffers from mental illness with symptoms including anxiety, fear and excessive agitation.
 
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