SHARJAH, 10 September 2004 — As more cases emerge of Keralite women being brought to Dubai on promises of employment and forced into prostitution, police say they are unable to act against the culprits in the absence of specific complaints.
“We take immediate and stern action whenever a complaint is filed,” said a police source. “We cannot act based on generalities or media reports.”
Wherever specifics are brought to their attention, the immigration authorities conduct raids and detain suspects on charges of violating immigration laws, which is a regular feature in most cases, according to the sources.
In the cases of Rajni and Chandni, complaints were filed and those involved have been detained pending prosecution.
An Indian source familiar with the approach of the immigration authorities revealed several recent cases, all of them involving only Keralites.
One of them involved a former state employee who was engaged in strong-arm tactics. The man used proxies to procure Keralite girls engaged in prostitution and keep them as hostages in areas outside the city. Other proxies will then inform the “operator” of the girls that the issue could be settled if the man was named as mediator.
The “mediator” then acts on behalf of the operator to secure the release of the girls on payment of several thousand dirhams, with no one suspecting him to be the real culprit. Inevitably, the girls were sent back to the “operator.”
“He continued for some time and made some big money, but then the authorities caught him on a specific complaint some eight weeks ago,” said the Indian source. “He was found to have violated immigration laws and was deported, with a ban on re-entry for one year. “However, the authorities found out that the man had returned carrying a different passport after three weeks.
“The man went underground when he suspected that he was being hunted and spread word that he left the country, but the authorities know that he is still around and they are determined to nab him,” said the source.
During a recent raid of an apartment where 10 Russian and two Indian girls were found engaged in prostitution, a man who stood guard at the door jumped down from the fourth-floor and injured himself. The youth turned out to be the first man’s nephew.”
In another case, a middle-aged man was found to have brought his 20-year-old unmarried niece to Dubai and handed her over to flesh traders. The reason: He was settling a score with his sister, the girl’s mother, in a dispute over property. The authorities caught him and deported him on immigration charges when the girl filed a complaint.
Another case involved a young Keralite girl settled in Tamil Nadu who was brought here and employed as an office executive. Things went well for several weeks before she was confronted by the Keralite manager who accused her of being responsible for the company’s alleged loss of tens of thousands of dirhams. She was told she had to make good the loss or be ready to go to prison for at least two years. The third alternative: “Entertain” some of the company’s “clients.”
Several weeks later, the girl found herself unable to do anything but to “entertain” dozens of “clients”. She has by now realized the company, her employment and the company’s losses were all stage managed into trapping her. Now she does not want to go back home. “All I want is to make enough money for me to buy a small house somewhere far away from my family and settle down there,” she says. “I can’t face my family.”
Shoba (not real name), 31, a widowed mother of two from a village near Trichur, recalls that she was brought here three years ago to work as a maid. “I was taken to an apartment and forced into prostitution,” she said. “I refused, and they locked me up and starved me for more than two weeks and regularly beat me up until I lost my ability to resist and agreed to whatever they told me to do.”
Shoba was rescued by a Keralite customer, who paid her “operator” 11,000 dirhams for her “release.” Prakash (not real name) married her. Subsequently, he lost his job and he had no option but to draw from his experience and that of his wife Shoba to run a brothel themselves.
For those Malayalis who might take a fancy to any of the girls and want her as a discreet “keep” and could afford to pay, the charge for her to be “released” from the bondage of her “operator” is anywhere upwards of 15,000 dirhams in cash. Then she, her maintenance and legal status and whatever else become his responsibility.
