DUBAI // A Bangladeshi security guard brought in two women from Kyrgyzstan in July last year with the promise of good jobs, then set them to work as prostitutes.
The women said they were picked up from Dubai International Airport and taken to a flat in Barsha Heights, formerly Tecom, where they were locked up and told they would have to sell their bodies.
One of the women sent her brother a WhatsApp message telling him what had happened and he contacted the Kyrgyzstan consulate in Dubai.
When police raided the flat on July 19, two consular employees had already arrived.
Police said the defendant was behind a desk in the flat, which had been divided into small bedrooms. Four women were present.
“When I questioned him about the place he said it was a massaging centre,” said an Emirati policeman.
The defendant denied charges of human trafficking and running a brothel. The women, aged 24 and 21, denied a charge of prostitution, saying they were forced to work in the brothel.
The guard was sentenced to three years to be followed by deportation and the court ordered the flat to be shut down.
The four women were found guilty of willingly working in prostitution and sentenced to six months in jail each to be followed by deportation. No reason for their conviction was given.
salamir@thenational.ae
