Gang in Dubai confines job-seekers in a flat, forces them to sign illegal work agreements

Dubai: The Dubai Court of First Instance has sentenced a group of men to three years in jail for assaulting a group of job-seekers and forcing them into signing illegal employment contracts through an online gambling centre.

According to records, the defendants had placed an advertisement for job-seekers on a social media platform. Upon seeing the advertisement, five job-seekers went to the office a company at Dubai Silicon Oasis. The office establishment was fake. One of the victims later testified that one of the defendants handed them a work contract and told them to sign it. However, the victims refused to do so when they realised that they would be required to run an online gambling centre.

“I came to the UAE on a visit visa with my friend to search for work. I saw the advertisement and contacted the number that was mentioned in the advertisement published on social media. But we refused to sign the agreement when we discovered that it was for a gambling centre,” said one of the victims.

When the job-seekers refused to sign the contract, ten men shut the doors of the room and threatened to kill the job-seekers and bury their bodies in the desert if they refused to sign the work agreements. They also seized the victims’ passports.

“They assaulted one of us and forced us to sign the contracts. They then kept us in detention, but I managed to escape and alerted the police,” he added.

A policeman testified that they received a report about a group of men forcefully confined to an apartment. Dubai Police then rescued the victims and arrested two of the defendants. “The victims claimed they were assaulted and locked in an apartment for six hours without food or water,” the policeman said.

The two defendants were charged with kidnapping, threatening and snatching the passports of the victims and their personal belongings. They were sentenced to three years in jail to be followed by deportation.