Dubai: Dubai Court of First Instance has sentenced a gang of five Bangladeshi men to jail for trafficking a group of minor girls and forcing them into prostitution.
The defendants, aged between 20 to 39, allegedly brought four teens from their home country to work as dancers and prostitutes at a night club in Al Muraqabbat area.
In March 2019, Dubai Police received a tip off about a teenager working as a dancer in the nightclub at a hotel owned by the first defendant.
Police raided the nightclub and found 19 women and the five defendants.
“All the women were working as dancers and prostitutes. Four of them were under the age of 18. We raided the place and rescued the victims who were referred to a women’s children’s shelter in Dubai. The defendants brought the victims using passports with fake ages,” an Emirati policeman said in official records.
The 17-year-old Bangladeshi victim testified that she agreed to come and work as a dancer in Dubai as she was supporting a family of 10 people in her home country.
She said that a man arranged for her passport and paid her money to arrive in the country. When she arrived, she was taken to a house with other girls.
“I agreed to work as a dancer because of the poor financial condition of my family. After four days of arriving in the country, they took us to the nightclub and told us that we will work as dancers. They asked me to have illegal affairs with three customers per month. The first defendant is the manager of the nightclub and he was running the business,” the victim said in records.
The four victims, aged 16-17, who arrived at different times last year, all said they came here so they could support their families back home.
The five defendants were charged with human trafficking. They will be deported after they have served their jail time.
