Dubai: Two women who were duped into coming to the UAE on the pretext of being offered jobs and then forced into prostitution managed to escape from their "agents" yesterday. A man who encountered them near the Kuwaiti Roundabout in Sharjah and asking motorists for a ride took them to the Sharjah Indian Association from where they were taken to the Indian consulate's shelter in Dubai.
I have three children back home and I came here to work as a cleaner. I have not been paid at all. I am also scared A Mathews, president of the Indian Association Sharjah. Mathews said the women, both Indians, did not fly directly from Kerala to the UAE but came via a neighbouring country.
In a written statement to the association, the women ages 31 and 32, said they were married and had come to the UAE on September 10 on a visit visa.
The visas were provided by a travel agent for Indian rupees 10, about Dh each. The agents whom they dealt with in Kerala had promised them jobs as cleaners in a hospital in the UAE.
I telephoned home only to hear my father had died. But he refused. Ten days ago the women refused to entertain any more men. As punishment they were taken to a building near the Kuwaiti Roundabout and locked in a flat.
