DUBAI // A Bangladeshi man accused of helping a maid to abscond from her sponsor then selling her into prostitution was cleared of human trafficking by the Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday.
Prosecutors claimed that the defendant A M, 35, persuaded the maid and her colleague to run away with the promise of better-paid jobs.
The woman, who is also from Bangladesh, told the court that she came to the country in February to work for an Emirati family in Ras Al Khaimah.
“I worked for a Dh600 salary for two months before I ran away with the help of the boyfriend of my colleague,” she said. The defendant said he would pay her Dh2,000 a month if she worked for him.
On April 7, the second maid, K, bought a mobile phone so that A M could call her when he arrived at the sponsor’s house to pick both the maids up.
A M then allegedly took them to an apartment, before moving them to another one.
“There were three men and three women in the second flat and they were all absconding workers,” said the maid. She accused A M of raping her when she refused to have sex with him.
She said that K was then moved to a different flat in Sharjah and she had not heard from her since, while she was sold to a massage parlour manager for Dh3,000.
A M was arrested while waiting in the park for the buyer, who was actually a police source.
Police captain A A, an Emirati, said the defendant had been placed under surveillance after a tip-off. “She did not know she was going to be sold because the defendant told her he found her a well-paid job in a massage centre,” said A A.
salamir@thenational.ae