Sharjah: The Sharjah Criminal Court sentenced a man to three years in jail followed by deportation for human trafficking.

According to a judicial official, A.A,, 31, was convicted of forcing girls into prostitution with the help of another unidentified Pakistani suspect. They brought girls from Pakistan into the country and "they sell them for Dh30,000 each," the court document said.

Prosecutors, investigating the case, said the two were suspected of involvement in "the sex trade and a police team was formed to follow the case".

An informant told the team that a Pakistani man was trying to "sell" a Pakistani girl for Dh30,000. A police trap was set up at a Sharjah shopping mall following an agreement between an undercover police officer from the Preventive Security Department and the man who promised to bring the girl. A man, identified as A, was arrested, along with a girl identified as M.A.

The girl told prosecutors the Pakistani man had brought her into the country "to work as a housemaid in his house for a monthly salary of Dh1,000".

Upon her arrival, he took her to his apartment where he invited two of his friends, who asked him to send her to their place in Ajman. The men in Ajman attempted to rape the girl, according to court documents.

As she resisted, they beat her and sent her back to Sharjah, where A began "sending her to men for money," the papers said. The girl said, "I was made to work as housemaid during the day and a prostitute at night."

Protection under law

The UAE Federal Law 51 of 2006, the first law of its kind in the region, defines trafficking in Article One as "recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring, or receiving persons by means of threat or use of force, or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person, or, the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation, engaging others in prostitution, servitude, forced labour, enslavement, quasi-slavery practices, or the detachment of organs".

This definition is closely aligned with the definition outlined in the Palermo Protocol and by other international legislation.