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

Box 3.9. A press report of trafficking for sexual exploitation
A case involving Nigerian defendants was presented at the Dubai Criminal
Court in March 2011. According to the article, the defendants entered the
country with a visitor’s visa and exploited three women of the same nationality
by offering them to male clients. The defendants were earning about
200–500 AED (US$55–140) daily from each of the women until the victims
reported their exploiters to the police. In the testimonies of the three victims
(aged 18, 29 and 31 years) to the general prosecutor, the first victim stated that
the first defendant provided her with a visa and plane ticket to the UAE
and then took her from the airport to her apartment in the Rifa›a region
where she was forced into prostitution to repay her debt of 60,000 AED
(US$16,300). However, the victim refused and told the defendant that she
was still a virgin. The defendant brought a man of the same nationality to
have sexual intercourse with her for the first time and then forced her to
have sex with several men on a daily basis. The second defendant did the same
with the second and the third victim. The judge subsequently delivered fiveyear
prison sentences to both defendants.
Source: B. Al-Mutery: “Two visitors sentenced to 5 years in prison for trafficking
in 3 women”, in Emaratalyoum, 31 Mar. 2011, http://www.emaratalyoum.
com/local-section/accidents/2011-03-31-1.375167 [17 May 2012].
The victims of this type of trafficking may arrive in the Middle East on work
or tourist/visitor visas arranged for them by freelance agents. An official from
the Russian Embassy in the UAE explained that “many of our citizens come
through a tourist visa, because it is more difficult for them to pay US$5,000
for a work visa,” adding that “it is also easier for the perpetrators to bring
workers through tourist visas because it is less expensive and there is no
governmental control over tourists.” 111 A sex worker interviewed in the UAE
also noted that those who become sex workers often enter the country on
tourist or visit visas, explaining that “all the first timers go through a Madam,
who buys their plane ticket and takes care of their visa. Not all the first timers
know what they are getting into.”
Recruitment of deceived artists
The third process of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation involves
the deception of women working in nightclubs and bars, otherwise known
as “artists”. The women working in the entertainment industry come mostly
from Eastern Europe, particularly Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova,
111
Interview with an official from the Embassy of the Russian Federation, UAE,
31 Jan. 2012.
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