DUBAI // A 15-year-old orphan brought to Dubai to work as a maid was instead forced into prostitution, a court heard on Tuesday.
The Bangladeshi victim, who had been living with her grandparents, was brought to the emirate by a married couple who told her she would make a good living as a maid.
The man and wife, M M and M A, both 46 and also Bangladeshi, arranged for a passport for the victim but changed her age to make her appear older so that she could obtain a work visa. The teenager agreed to the job after her grandparents met one of the suspects, the court heard.
“M A visited my grandparents and told them that she had a well-paid job for me in Dubai as a maid, and they agreed,” the girl said.
After being collected at Dubai International Airport at the end of last year, she was driven to a flat in Al Rafaa by driver M A A, 42, where she was beaten and threatened by the couple. Her passport was also seized.
The couple were then alleged to have forced her into massaging and performing sexual acts with men. Soon after, she was forced to have sex with customers, the court heard.
“I was accompanied by either M M or M A wherever I went, therefore I wasn’t able to escape,” the girl said in court records.
Another 19-year-old Bangladeshi girl told prosecutors she was also offered a job, as a masseuse, by M A’s son, who helped to get her a passport and plane ticket after she paid him 12,000 taka (Dh566).
She arrived at Sharjah International Airport on September 9 and was taken to the same flat in Al Rafaa, where her passport was also seized.
“I was then surprised to learn that I had to massage even the private parts of men,” she said.
“For about five months I worked as a masseuse, from 10am to midnight. I was not forced to have sex with any man, but then M M and M A told me that I would have to start doing it,” she said.
On her first day working as a prostitute she cried in front of a customer and told him she was being forced to sell her body.
He agreed to help her and sent a text to Dubai Police falsely reporting a murder in the apartment, and that women were being held and forced into prostitution.
Officers arrived 15 minutes after receiving the message and found the two women along with three others who were, of their own free will, working as prostitutes.
Police arrested M M, M A and M A A on March 1.
“M M said during investigations that he worked as a cook but he and his wife started their own company bringing maids from Bangladesh,” said Emirati policeman J A, 42.
“He also said M A A worked for them as a driver, for Dh2,000 a month.”
All three denied charges of human trafficking.
The next hearing is on September 6.
salamir@thenational.ae
