DUBAI: Police have arrested 2,713 prostitutes in a crackdown against vice that started 15 months ago, said a senior officer.
Capt. Ali Al-Suwaidi, head of Vice Unit in Dubai police, said 107 women pimps were also nabbed during the raids in the densely populated areas of Al-Rifaa, Naif, Muraqabat and Riqqa, which are notorious for prostitutes accosting men on streets.
Al-Suwaidi said a 14-year-old Bangladeshi girl who had been forced into prostitution was discovered in one raid. The girl was subsequently repatriated to her home country through the Bangladeshi mission.
The girl had been sold by her parents to a pimp, who brought her into the UAE on a family visa claiming she was his daughter. The pimp, also a Bangladeshi, has been charged with human trafficking, forcing a minor into having sex and running a brothel.
Al-Suwaidi said the police are focusing on finding the pimps who run brothels. “The women pimps run the brothels with an iron fist. They take the women’s passports the minute they arrive in the country and refuse to give them back unless they pay 20,000 to 30,000 dirhams,” he said.
