DUBAI // A woman who lured a widow from her homeland to the UAE and tried to force her into prostitution was jailed for three years on Thursday after being found guilty of human trafficking.
The victim, Uzbek M A, 35, escaped with the help of a fellow captive and reported her ordeal to police, including how women were selling sex for Dh20.
Dubai Criminal Court was told in September that the victim, a mother of two, lived in cramped conditions with her mother and brother in Uzbekistan when a neighbour offered her a job as a nanny in the UAE.
“She [the neighbour] called on March 7 this year and told me that I will be paid US$500 (Dh1,840) a month for child caring and cleaning the house as well,” said M A.
After receiving the offer she went to meet the neighbour, S, to arrange travel to Dubai but could not find her. Instead, a man offered to help.
“A man identified as B, that S had told me about, came and offered to buy my ticket and issue my visa, then send me to a woman he knows in Dubai who would help me find a job,” said M A. “Then, I would pay him back from my salary.”
The money she owed would be paid to her employer in Dubai before being transferred to B, the court heard.
M A stayed on for a further 12 days, in contact with B, until her visa and ticket were ready for collection. During that time, B paid for her expenses.
On March 19, she landed at Dubai International Airport and was picked up by the defendant, fellow Uzbek E A, 44.
From there, they went to a flat in Sharjah, where the widow had her passport seized and was told she would have to repay US$10,000 (Dh36,731) for the expenses she had incurred.
“I told her that B told me it was only US$3,000,” she said.
The court heard that E A then told the victim she had to work as a prostitute.
“I refused but I got frightened when she said she would send me to a gang who would lock me up and give me away to sex-seekers for the cheapest prices,” said the victim.
She told the court she was taken to a flat in Dubai where she met other women from her home country, all of whom had sex with men in exchange for Dh20.
For more than a week, she gave her captors excuses for not going out to find customers.
On her first day outside the flat, when she was supposedly looking for men, she was able to escape with the help of a prostitute.
“She gave me Dh150 and told me to take a taxi and run away. She said she could work in this business because she was single and had no children but, for me, with two children, I better run away,” said M A.
She made her way to the airport, where she eventually found someone who spoke her language.
After explaining her situation, the man told her to call the police.
Police raided the flat in Dubai and arrested E A, who initially denied her involvement.
“At first she denied everything – even knowing the victim – then said that she met M A in a park two days before the arrest as she was homeless and had asked her for help,” said police officer O A.
Prosecutors said that the defendant had been deported on three previous occasions, once in 2007 and again in April and September of 2011.
The Uzbek was charged with trafficking M A, which she denied.
But she was convicted and jailed for three years, to be followed by deportation.
salamir@thenational.ae
