Dubai court clears men of locking up 20 Filipina workers

Three Indian men have been cleared of locking up 20 Filipinas and only allowing them to work.

DUBAI // Three men have been cleared of locking up twenty women and only allowing them out to work.

The men would take the Filipina women, who worked as cleaners in a hotel, there at 7am and bring them back at 8pm, Dubai Criminal Court had heard.

They claimed it was only to protect the women from sexual harassment by single men who live in the area and the women gave in because they needed the jobs, it was alleged.

“They would lock the door to the villa and the main entrance outside as well,” one of the women M T, 30, said.

She added that a bus attendant and a guard stayed at their building to keep an eye on them.

“Five days after I joined, I was told by my female co-workers that this was the system followed by the hotel management and that the women gave in because they need their jobs. They also told me that one day in every month, they would be taken to the market to buy their needs,” M T said.

Another worker told the court she signed a contract with the hotel on a monthly salary of Dh1,500 but when she came she was given just Dh700 and then locked up along with her colleagues. “They told me the Dh800 were being deducted to cover the expenses of my visa and airplane ticket,” J R, 28, told the court.

Another worker, M D, 30, said they had not been abused physically or any other way.

“They only prevented us from leaving the accommodation,” she said, adding that it is the only complaint that her other colleagues have about work.

The three men, S M, 41; K M, 61; and K A, 54 – all from India – were acquitted at Dubai Criminal Court on Tuesday of illegally locking up the employees of a Dubai hotel for more than a month.

It was not clear how police were informed of the incident, which came to light in May, or how the defendants were arrested.