Two women jailed for human trafficking, Dubai court rules

DUBAI // Two Moroccan women who lured three compatriots to the UAE with the promise of good jobs before forcing them to work as prostitutes have been jailed for three years each.

The women, aged 39 and 22, beat the three and locked them in a flat, Dubai Criminal Court was told.

One of the victims said she arrived in Dubai in September after paying the women Dh5,000 for a job at a sports club. When she arrived she was locked in a flat in Al Muraqqabat with two other Moroccan women.

“One of the defendants assaulted me with a shisha pipe and the other banned me from stepping out of the flat,” she said. She was forced to have sex with a Saudi Arabian man before being taken to a hotel to meet another client, she said. She managed to escape and went to a police station.

Officers raided the flat, arrested the defendants and rescued the two other women.

One of the victims said she was offered a job at a beauty salon and paid more than Dh3,400 to the defendants but was beaten, threatened and locked up when she arrived in the country.

She was forced to sleep with men, mostly Saudis, Bahrainis and Indians, who paid Dh1,500 each.

The third woman said she came to Dubai two months before the defendants were arrested and had also paid them money in exchange for a job in Dubai.

“The morning after my arrival to join a beauty salon the defendants had me wear make-up and took my picture. Then they took my passport and told me I will be a prostitute. I refused, so they assaulted me.”

The 27-year-old said she was forced to have sex with more than 30 men before police raided the flat.

The defendants confessed to working as prostitutes themselves and forcing the three victims to do the same.

They denied charges of human trafficking, assaulting and imprisoning the women when they appeared in court last April. But both were convicted and will be deported after serving their jail terms.