Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East, ‎pdf 4.1 MB

The victim came to the country to work in female massage and after one month she
was taken to a flat on the roof of the same building to work in male massage and
provide sexual favours. She refused and the perpetrator forced her by threatening
her and finally the victim asked for help from a customer and went to the police
station. She gave the address of the place and claimed that another woman was
used and forced in the same way. Then the police raided the place and arrested the
suspects. The Attorney General stated that it is the first time that the prosecutors
referred to court human trafficking suspects after filling a charge of forced servitude. 107
Numerous press reports describe this process of trafficking for sexual
exploitation (for an example, see box 3.9). In one recent article, three women
were accused of deceiving an Uzbek woman who had travelled to Dubai on a
visitor’s visa with the promise of work as a babysitter. She was instead forced
to prostitute herself in order to cover the cost of her travel, which she was
told amounted to US$20,000. 108 A sex worker who was interviewed by the
research team also spoke of the fees imposed by the pimp to cover recruitment
costs, explaining: “You have to work to reimburse the ‘escort fee’, 109 which is
anywhere between 25,000 and 30,000 AED (US$6,800–8,200). You need
at least one month to reimburse the fees and on average five clients a day.
You must reimburse the ‘escort fee’ before you can leave or do another job.”
An NGO official confirmed that all the women trapped into trafficking were
told by the traffickers that they would have to pay not only the costs of their
recruitment but also all their accommodation and food expenses, amounting
on average to sums of between US$20,000 and 30,000. 110
107
Dubai Public Prosecution Department: “Referral of the first cases of human
trafficking based on forced servitude”, 26 Jan. 2011, http://www.dxbpp.gov.ae/
NewsPage.aspx?ID=806 [accessed 10 June 2012].
108
B. Za’za: “Trio accused of forcing visitor into prostitution”, in Gulfnews.com, 2 May
2012, http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/crime/trio-accused-of-forcing-visitor-intoprostitution-1.1016686
[accessed 22 Aug. 2012].
109
Sex workers interviewed often referred to the “escort fees” which are the fees that the
employer/pimp has paid for the recruitment of the worker including the cost of plane
tickets, visa and transport and that the worker should reimburse before being able to
quit the job.
110
Interview with an official from Vivere, Switzerland, 27 Feb. 2012.
75