Dubai: A maid has been accused of bringing her 15-year-old relative to Dubai, locking her up in a flat and forcing her into prostitution, in collaboration with two men.
The Bangladeshi maid and her two countrymen, aged 34 and 27, allegedly forged papers and travel documents in which they showed the 15-year-old girl’s age as 25 to be able to fly her to Oman from Bangladesh.
They then smuggled her and other girls by car from Oman to Dubai, according to records, locked her up in a flat and made her work in the sex trade.
The 27-year-old suspect used to pocket the girl’s earnings.
The teenager is the step-daughter of the maid’s sister.
Dubai Police’s anti-human trafficking department were alerted by an informant about a flat being used as a brothel in Freej Al Marar.
When police raided the flat, they found the teenager, the maid, three prostitutes and the 27-year-old suspect. The 34-year-old suspect remains at large and is being tried in absentia.
Prosecutors accused the maid and her two countrymen of committing a human trafficking crime.
The two men were charged with running a brothel in a flat.
The maid was also accused of running another flat as a brothel. She also worked in prostitution.
The 27-year-old suspect pleaded not guilty before presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi at the Dubai Court of First Instance.
The maid also pleaded innocent and contended: “It is the absconder who ran the flat as a brothel and forced the girls into prostitution. I used to live in the flat and work there.”
Al Shamsi asked: “What did you work as in the flat?”
“A prostitute,” she replied.
The teenager told prosecutors that she was promised work as a maid in Dubai.
“My mother passed away 10 years ago and my father married the female suspect’s sister. When my dad fell ill, my stepmother called up her sister [the suspect] and asked her to help me find a job in Dubai. My stepmother borrowed money from our neighbours and the suspects arranged for a forged passport to help me fly to Oman … a person picked me up from the airport in Oman ... there were other girls present with us. When we reached Dubai, I was kept in a flat with the suspect [stepmother’s sister]. I was forced to work in prostitution … I also learnt from the other prostitutes that the absconder had sent money to my family. I called my stepmother and she confirmed that the 34-year-old had sent her money. They used to transfer me from one flat to another. One day the flat supervisor saw a number of men on the CCTV cameras coming towards the door … she asked us to hide. Police then freed me and arrested everybody.”
Three women, two Bangladeshis and an Indonesian, were quoted telling prosecutors that they worked as prostitutes in the flat.
