DUBAI 8 November 2017: Iraqi mother and her daughter allegedly brought teenagers to Dubai from Iraq and offered them for sex to customers, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.
The mother AH, 64, (fugitive), and her 31-year-old daughter WJ, who is married to an Emirati man, enticed teenagers on different occasions through men and women in Iraq to run away from their parent’s homes to arrange for their travel to Dubai.
The girls were issued forged passports in Iraq. Their ages were brought up to above 20 to enable their travel.
NK, whose age is between 19-20, told investigators that being an orphan and then divorced, she was living with her uncle until she met AH in Bagdad and the latter, offered her to come to Dubai.
“I was working in sales against US$10 per day. I was threatened with the rape of my 12-year old sister by another woman to force me accept travelling to Dubai,” she testified.
Should any of the girls changed her mind about travelling to Dubai, they were threatened with harm to their family members, or informing their families about them.
AH issued me a forged passport that did not carry my real name nor my real age.
“AH transported me to the airport and told me that WJ will receive me in Dubai. I arrived in mid-2014, and WJ and her Syrian boyfriend Majed received me at the airport. She took my visa and passport and told me that I cost her $10,000 and told me that I will work in prostitution. She threatened to kill my younger sister in Iraq and forced me into prostitution,” testified the victim.
Majed used to drop her and other two women to customers and parties. He used to get money from clients and hand them over to his girlfriend.
After a heated argument, the victim was made to put her fingerprint on a document that carried her picture and was told that it is for residency formalities.
Marriage Contract
Police raided the villa where the women lived and the victim was shocked when she was told by the police that they had confiscated her marriage bond to Majed.
“I never knew that I was made to put my fingerprint on a marriage contract. I am illiterate and was told the document was for residency formalities,” she said.
“I was made to offer sex to WJ’s friends on regular bases and for almost a year.
Another girl, ZA, 19-20, came with her sister to Dubai.
Rape
“I was told that we cost them $30,000 to come to Dubai. After our arrival, we were taken to a party in a villa in Abu Dhabi by a woman called Sheikha. My sister’s virginity was violated before my eyes. I screamed and collapsed when I saw my sister in this position. I argued with Sheikha and the man who did that to my sister. I was taken back to Dubai and a week later, I was offered a juice by the maid. After I woke up, I was shocked to find that someone violated my virginity.
In this way ZA was forced into prostitution and later she learnt that an Emirati called Wahid was the one who violated her.
A third girl, MA, 16-17, was incited by WJ’s mother, AH, whom she met through another woman, to run away from her father’s house in Iraq.
AH told me that her daughters work in prostitution in Dubai and offered me to escape the situation in Iraq by travelling to Dubai. She told me that nobody would force me to work in prostitution. As I accepted, she forged a passport for me and supplied me with an air ticket,” testified MA.
MA arrived in Dubai and received by WJ and Majed in September 2016. However, after her arrival her documents was taken from her and was told that she has to pay back $20,000, the cost of coming to Dubai.
Humiliated
“I was forced into prostitution, humiliated and treated badly. I was not given any money to spend and they were not spending on my needs. Last May, I ran away from the villa where we were living. I stopped a motorist who picked me up at a petrol station from where I took a taxi to Sharjah. In Sharjah I stayed in a mosque for three days and I met a Palestinian woman to whom I told my story. The woman took me to the police to lodge a complaint,” she testified.
Police raided the villa and arrested the other two women and WJ.
Police confiscated more than Dh100,000 in the house in addition to other currencies.
Police also confiscated the passport of WJ’s mother.
WhatsApp chats on WJ’s mobile phones proved that she supplied the women for prostitution, and sent their indecent pictures to customers.
The three women were treated as witnesses and human trafficking victims and were offered shelter in Dubai Woman and Child Care Association.
The court will reconvene on November 28.