Abu Dhabi: Fourteen men and a woman have
been charged in connection with the largest human trafficking
and prostitution ring to have been busted in Abu Dhabi, a
United Arab Emirates newspaper reported on Monday.
The defendants are accused of involvement in a ring which
allegedly promised jobs in the oil-rich UAE to 13 women, most
of them from Morocco, but then forced them into prostitution,
a newspaper reported.
"There was the recruiter in Morocco, the kingpins in the
UAE who oversaw the logistics, and handlers to control the
women," the English-language newspaper said.
"Then there were the women, all lured here in the hopes
of a good job only to find themselves enslaved in a seedy
underworld of prostitution."
According to court testimony, the women were kept locked
in a villa and several flats after their arrival in the Gulf
Arab state, then beaten and threatened with death to force
them to work as prostitutes, it said.
The newspwper said that the group's leader, a Syrian who
had fled the Emirates, was alleged to have forced his Moroccan
wife of five months into prostitution as well.
The Abu Dhabi court is to issue a verdict in the case on
January 17.
"It remains unclear how many women are lured to the UAE
each year to work in the sex trade. The number of trafficking
cases brought before UAE courts increased last year to 36 from
20 in 2008," said the newspaper.
PTI
First Published: Monday, January 11, 2010, 21:26