DUBAI // Two women who lured their compatriot to the UAE by promising her a job as a nanny but forced her into prostitution instead, have been sentenced to three years in prison.
The two Uzbeks JD, 28, and NH, 25, were found guilty by the Criminal Court of human trafficking and will be deported after serving their sentences. The two lured their 23-year-old countrywoman to Dubai with the promise of a monthly salary of US$700, saying she would work for another Uzbek woman, JJ, a 50-year-old mother of two. When she arrived in Dubai she was taken to a house in Muraqqabat where she met a number of other Uzbek women who were working as prostitutes and told to hand over her passport.
When she refused she was beaten and told she would have to pay US$20,000. She was also threatened with death.
After agreeing to their demands she was taken to a nightclub in Deira where she was forced to offer sex to a man for Dh700. She escaped on her third day in Dubai after being asked to spend a night with a customer in a hotel.
"I woke up earlier than him and headed to reception, which had my passport," she told the court. "I asked the receptionist to give me my passport then took a taxi and told him to drive me to the nearest police station."
Police tracked down the brothel using the name of a restaurant that the woman could remember.
JJ, the 50-year-old mother of two, and an Iranian man, NE, 51, were charged with running a brothel, but were acquitted.
wissa@thenational.ae