DUBAI // A woman was lured to the country with the promise of a job as a nanny, but locked up and forced to work as a prostitute instead, a court heard today.
YA, a 23-year-old from Uzbekistan, told the Dubai Criminal Court that in October she was offered a monthly salary of US$700 to work for her compatriot JJ, a 50-year-old mother of two living in the emirate.
When she arrived in Dubai she met the mother and another woman from Uzbekistan, 28-year-old JD, and was taken to a house in Al Muraqqabat where she met a number of other Uzbek women, including 25-year-old NH.
She was then asked to hand over her passport and when she did so she was told she would work as a prostitute. When she refused JD and NH assaulted her and threatened to kill her.
The mother then said that if she did not want to work as a prostitute she would have to pay her $20,000.
"I finally gave in out of fear," said the woman. She was taken the next day to a nightclub in a Deira hotel where she was forced to offer sex to a man for Dh700.
On her third day in Dubai she was taken back to the same hotel and was forced to spend the night with a different customer. "I woke up earlier than him and headed to the reception who had my passport," she said. "I asked the receptionist to give me my passport then took a taxi and told him to drive me to the nearest police station."
Police tracked down the women's location using the name of a restaurant that YA could remember seeing and arrested them in the Al Muraqqabat house that was being used as a brothel.
JJ, JD and NH were charged with human trafficking. JJ was also charged with running a brothel, as was the Iranian man NE, 51. JD and NH faced additional charges of prostituting themselves.
They did not enter a plea this morning as a lawyer was not present.
The next hearing will be on May 22.
salamir@thenational.ae
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