RAS AL KHAIMAH // An Asian housemaid who fled her employer thought she had found a lifeline when she met a man who said he would help her.
Instead he locked her in an apartment in Ras al Khaimah with several other women he forced to work as prostitutes.
For refusing, the housemaid endured 10 days of beatings before she managed to contact the police, who raided the apartment and rescued the victims. The woman, who has now returned to her home country, was one of the first victims of human trafficking to be given refuge at a new shelter that opened in Ras al Khaimah at the beginning of the year.
Ewaa, the group that runs it, cares for three women there and another six in its Sharjah shelter, which also opened last month.
It is just over two years since Ewaa - meaning "to shelter" - opened its first branch in Abu Dhabi.
Since then the shelter has provided temporary refuge to 113 women and girls, most of them trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Sarah Shuhail, the executive director of Ewaa, said yesterday that opening additional shelters for victims of human trafficking was always part of her organisation’s long-term plan. The new shelters are needed not because of an increase in the number of cases, Mrs Shuhail said, but mainly to help victims through the investigation process and court cases in the Northern Emirates.
“We face a lot of difficulties when the cases are in Sharjah or Ras al Khaimah, because we would sometimes have to transport the women every day from Abu Dhabi to give information, sometimes early in the morning, which was very difficult,” she said. “That’s why we opened in Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah: to make it easier for the women and for the staff.”
The Ewaa shelters in Ras al Khaimah and Sharjah are based on the model developed at the shelter in Abu Dhabi, where women are provided with support and care in the immediate period after they are rescued or escape.
There are currently five women being looked after by 16 staff at Ewaa’s secure villa in a secret location in the capital, which can accommodate up to 60.
The numbers fluctuate. “Sometime we get more than 10 women and the next month we won’t receive anyone. It depends on the crime,” Mrs Shuhail said.
“I hope the new shelters bring more awareness as well. When there is a shelter in an area and the police know, as well as the wider society, maybe there will be more awareness.”
Mrs Shuhail said the key to tackling human trafficking was for all concerned people and institutions to work together.
“We should learn that there won’t be success on this issue if all organisations and foundations in this country and outside don’t work together and share information,” she said. “This is very, very important. We can’t do it alone.”
In the two years since the first victim was admitted to the Abu Dhabi shelter, the staff have dealt with numerous cases of psychological and physical abuse, torture and imprisonment.
“Before, I didn’t imagine that human beings could do something like that to another human being,” Mrs Shuhail said. “Not just to their bodies, but to the inside of a person. It takes us a long time to help the victim to get back from this.”
A look at Ewaa's history
Ewaa Abu Dhabi was opened on January 5, 2009, with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, providing the annual budget for the government-affiliated shelter that falls under the umbrella of the UAE Red Crescent Authority.
At that time, the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children, which opened in 2007, was the only fully equipped shelter in the country caring for victims of human trafficking.
A report released by the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking last year found that at least 43 human trafficking-related cases involving 86 victims were handled across the UAE in 2009. This was up from 20 cases in 2008 and just 10 in 2007. At least 35 of the 43 cases cited in the 2009-2010 report resulted in convictions.
The 2010-2011 report on trafficking in the UAE is expected to be released in the next few months.
* Zoi Constantine