Seven on trial for selling maid to human trafficking gang in Dubai

Dubai - The maid was sold for Dh3,500.

Seven people are standing trial at the Dubai Court of First Instance on various charges, including human trafficking.
The court heard that a 23-year-old Pakistani man and two Indonesian women, aged 32 and 31, hosted an Indonesian nanny at their flat in Dubai after making her believe that they would help her get a job. However, she was later sold for Dh3,500 to the main accused, a 37-year-old Bangladeshi, to be forced to work in prostitution.
She was locked up in a room inside a villa. The main accused and three other Bangladeshis, including two fugitives, are accused of running the villa room as a prostitution den. All the defendants are detained except for the two who are on the run.
The incident happened between October 25 and November 1 last year and was reported at Al Muraqqabat police station.
The nanny, a 30-year-old, said that she arrived to the UAE on February 2 last year and worked for a family. But she left her work and joined another family. She also did not get along with them over holding back her salary from her previous employer and banning her from using her mobile phone.
During the public prosecution investigation, the nanny recalled the ordeal she went through after a woman of her nationality introduced her to another woman who knew the defendants.
"I was made to believe that I would work for a family in Sharjah. But I learned later that I was just sold to a man who kept me a prisoner in a villa where there were other women working as prostitutes.
"I begged them to return me to that woman but the main accused insisted I work for him, saying he bought me for Dh4,000."
She abstained from obeying them and from eating. She became ill and tired, which made her unwanted by the men who visited the villa. She eventually managed to contact her sister and the latter helped her call the police after she shared her location on WhatsApp.
A police lieutenant told the prosecutor that they received a complaint by the victim's sister about the victim being held captive at a villa in Al Hamriyah, Al Muraqqabat.
"We went to that location and after obtaining a public prosecution warrant, we raided it, freed the captive woman and arrested the accused." The room was found to be partitioned with a surveillance camera at its door.
The trial will continue on February 3.
mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai