DUBAI, 9 September 2004 — Two girls from Kerala who escaped from the clutches of flesh-traders who had forced them into prostitution have exposed an organized racket operated by Keralites.
The two separate cases have prompted Indian Consulate officials in Dubai to caution Indian women traveling alone to anywhere in the Gulf on visit visas or employment visas given to them by unknown parties should verify the authenticity of the sponsor or arrange to have a relative or a friend or someone deemed reliable to receive them upon arrival.
It was always known that there were Keralite girls here engaged in prostitution in small discreet, one-or two-bedroom apartments.
However, it is the first time that two of them have managed to escape and recounted stories of how they were brought to the UAE on visit visas — with promises of guaranteed employment — and then whisked away from the airport to virtual bondage and pressed into the oldest profession against their will.
Rajni, 25, (not real name) from central Kerala, is a graduate in hotel management. She was working in Bangalore, but tensions within the family prompted her to take up what then appeared to be a “chance” offer of employment in the UAE.
She came to Dubai and was picked up from the airport and driven to what she learned later was “the godown” — a place where girls like her are told that their job is to sexually entertain “clients.”
The process of turning girls like Rajni into prostitutes at the “godown” is known in the trade as “training” and involved men as well as other Keralite women who are either already in the trade or arrange “clients” and take a commission.
Rajni refused, and next thing she knew was she was raped and severely beaten up. She was locked up in a room and denied food and water for several days until she had no option but to agree to engage in prostitution.
She was moved to a two-bed room apartment in Deira where she shared it with another Keralite woman but under the control of two men, also from Kerala.
All her “operators” as well as “clients” were also from Kerala.
Whenever she refused to “cooperate” she was beaten up and starved. After a few days, she was being moved from apartment to apartment at three-day or four-day intervals to entertain new clients.
She was kept under constant watch and was not allowed to contact her family except on certain days when she was handed a mobile phone and permitted to speak a few words of pleasantries.
It took her more than three months to find a “sympathetic client”— again, a Keralite — who agreed to help her.
Rajni managed to escape while she was being moved from one apartment to another in a taxi. She contacted the man who promised to help her and she ended up at a center run by the Indian Welfare Committee affiliated with the Indian Association and consulate.
She was flown home last week after the consulate here issued her an outpass (since her passport was held by her “operator”) and well-wishing donors bought her an air ticket.
Chandni, 30, (not real name) a divorced mother of three, came to Dubai to work as a maid but on a visit visa four months ago.
After an ordeal very similar to Rajni’s, Chandni, with help from a “client,” fled from her “operator” two weeks ago. However, her problems did not end there.
Her “operator” threatened the man who helped her and took from him 7,000 dirhams in order to “release” Chandni. Chandni flew home on Monday.
These two cases are only the tip of an iceberg, by most accounts. Sources familiar with the racket say that a dozen or so men and women are at its helm and they have “agents” throughout Kerala always on the lookout for vulnerable women — divorcees, those having serious family problems, and those in financial crises — in small villages and towns.
They approach such women with job offers in the Gulf and the bait is easily swallowed, particularly because the women are promised that they would be able to sent home at least Rs15,000 a month.
Once they end up in the flesh trade here, they are trapped. They cannot break away from the gangs and would not want to inform their family of the reality of the situation — even if they had the opportunity — because of the social stigma.
According to the sources, there are several hundred Keralite women who have been brought here and forced into prostitution.
“Only a small percentage of them knew beforehand that they would be working as prostitutes here,” said one source.
(To be continued)
