The Deccan Herald reports:

An illegal immigrant of Indian descent is being tried in court here for exploiting a ”penniless housemaid” after he was caught attempting to sell her.

The Public Prosecution charged the 30-year-old suspect with breaching federal law on human trafficking for exploiting an Indonesian housemaid, Gulf News reported.

Apparently, the woman, who was in need of money, was forced into flesh trade by the accused. He has also been charged with illegally staying in the country.

The accused confessed to the charges and said he did not force the woman into prostitution and instead ‘’she was willing to do sex work”.

The suspect has pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance.An advocate will be assigned to defend the suspect.

Link to original article.

According to Gulf Daily News:

A BAHRAIN human rights group has launched an investigation to unmask the perpetrators behind more than 35 websites offering sex to customers here and in other Gulf countries.

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) president Mohammed Al Maskati said they were concerned about women who were being brought here on promises of lawful employment only to find themselves victims of sexual exploitation.

He said women from Europe, Middle East and Asia were being advertised for sex through more than 35 Arabic and English websites.

One of the main websites, he said, was based in the US, but the GCC co-ordinator was thought to be operating from Bahrain.

“We found that it is more difficult to access these sites in countries such as the UAE and Kuwait, but they are easily accessible from Bahrain,” he told the GDN. “We think the co-ordinator is from Bahrain, but we don’t yet know who it is.

“We know the network is registered in the US but we think there is an agency in Bahrain because girls living in Juffair, Manama and Adliya are being advertised for sex.

“Our team found more than 1,000 pictures of girls who were all below the age of 25.

“We think there is a Bahraini girl on the website, but we can’t confirm this because they only use nicknames.”

Read rest of the entry.

From the Ansar Burney Trust -

LAHORE: Many smuggled minor girls from Pakistan are forced into prostitution in Middle East in an organised crime.

Some minor girls recently rescued from Middle East by human rights activist Ansar Burney revealed horrifying facts regarding the flesh trade going on in the region.

They said most of their companions belonged to Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Afghanistan and newly independent countries from Russia.

“Most of the victims are between the age of 11 to 13 years and are smuggled to the Arab countries where they are forced into prostitution in Middle East and Arab countries,” one of the victims said and added that on the passports the ages of these girls were shown as 20 to 22 years old.

She said the human traffickers promised a beautiful and bright future and respectable jobs in the Middle East and Arab countries to lure young girls and after reaching abroad these girls are forced into prostitution.

“The traffickers forced the young girls to show themselves as virgins because most of their clients demanded young girls,” said another victim. She said “After arrival and clearance from the airport the traffickers took her passport and forced her physically to do what she was told,” she said. Threats of informing the police and of telling their families were the other tools being used by the traffickers against their sex slaves.

She said threats of violence kept the victims in line and in some cases these threats became reality. Many girls were forced to have abortions and were forced back to work within weeks. She maintained beatings and forced abortions are common in the life of the sex slaves.

Read more of the report here.

The News features a horrifying story by Shakeel Anjum, who reports:

ISLAMABAD: The irony is chilling. Even before they could bloom into flowers, teenaged flower-selling girls are being trafficked to some Middle East countries ostensibly for employment but only to be used for physical pleasure.

The poor girls, who sell flowers on Islamabad roads, are being trafficked on passports bearing fake names by a new racket as startling details of the ordeal of one such girl reaches before the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP).

[…]

The main accused Parveen lured the young flower vender to Muridke, a town near Lahore, impersonating her as real sister under the name Shama. She, later, took Nazia to Nadra centre and got her a CNIC as Shama, daughter of her (Perveen’s) own father Muhammad Shafi. Later, Nazia was issued passport on the basis of this fake CNIC. She was sent abroad and was sold for prostitution in Dubai.

[…]

“The racket has smuggled about 40 young girls to the Middle East for prostitution,” Hashmi added. The police arrested all the nominated accused — Rafaqat, resident of District Narowal, Parveen, Anees Ahmed and Allah Rakha r/o District Sheikhupura.

The gang members, during questioning, confessed Nazia was enticed by Parveen when she used to sell flowers in Saddar area and district courts area of Rawalpindi. A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official said the Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance (PACHTO) 2002 empowers the agency to enforce the ordinance and break into the nets of human smugglers and traffickers.

[Read the full article.]

Domestic servants in some countries of the Middle East are forced to work 12 to 16 hours a day with little or no pay, and subject to sexual abuse such as rape, forced abortions, and physical abuse that has resulted in death.

- World Revolution

In August 2001, soldiers with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Eritrea were purchasing ten-year-old girls for sex in local hotels.

- Before the arrival of 15,000 UN troops in Cambodia in 1991, there were an estimated 1,000 prostitutes in the capital. Currently, Cambodia’s illegal sex trade generates $500 million a year. No less than 55,000 women and children are sex slaves in Cambodia, 35 percent of which are younger than 18 years of age.

- Over 5,000 women and children have been trafficked from the Philippines, Russia and Eastern Europe and are forced into prostitution in bars servicing the U.S. Military in South Korea

Source: World Revolution

The CATW initiative presented this case from Saudi Arabia -

The story of two Thai women:

Two Thai women forced trafficked to Saudi Arabia have come forward leading to the surrender of their trafficker, another Thai woman named Suna Thianmanee. Both women had contacted Suna in hopes of finding high paying work in Saudi Arabia, but instead were forced into prostitution. The women were forced to travel, in a tiny compartment below the truck’s undercarriage or empty oil tank of the vehicle tanker in the scorching sun, from one construction site to another and to offer their sexual services.

Upon arriving in the Saudi capital, they were forced to share a five-metre-by-four-metre room with seven other girls, one of whom was Suna’s sister. They were told that they would be engaged in prostitution, not restaurant helpers as promised, if they wanted to live. One of the women said that all nine girls, including herself and Suna’s sister, had been wrongfully lured into the sex trade. Each girl had to service four to ten customers a day. Suna would earn about 200 to 800 riyals (Baht 2,000-Baht 8000) per visit while the girls would get free room and boarding and earn occasional tips. In five months, Suna was able to expand her brothel by renting a two-story, three-bedroom house. Most customers were Thai and Filipino workers and some Saudi citizens. (Preecha Sa-Ardsorn, “Saudi woman procurer surrenders before police,” The Nation, 19 July 1998)

Some good news in a tragic case:

HEADLINE: THAILAND/MIDDLE EAST - A suspected human trafficker has been arrested for allegedly luring women to the sex trade in the Middle East, Thai police said. Officers of the Suppression of Crimes Against Children and Women Monday arrested La-iad Kaewdee, 32, in Thai central province of Samut Prakan. She has been charged with being a member of a gang procuring women for prostitution, a police source was quoted on Monday by Thai news group The Nation as saying.

Police said La-iad had admitted the charges but claimed she had only been involved in duping one woman. Division deputy commander Colonel Jaruwat Vaisaya said a victim who escaped from a brothel in an unnamed Middle Eastern country reported La-iad after being assisted back to Thailand by the Foreign Ministry.

The victim alleged La-iad lured her to the Middle East with the promise of a well-paying job in a restaurant. When she arrived her passport was seized and she was forced to work as a prostitute. The gang claimed she owed 100,000 baht (about 2,780 U.S. dollars) for transport costs, said the report.

“We estimate up to 100 women remain in the Middle East being forced to work as prostitutes,” Jaruwat said. Most of the victims are from the North and Northeast of Thailand. Human trafficking “networks” go to different places and lure women with promises of good jobs as domestic helpers or in restaurants. (Xinhua General News Service January 15, 2007)

Source: Gender Watchers

100 only from Thailand, perhaps. But the number of women being forced into prostitution in the region go up to thousands, and are being smuggled from various parts of the world, mostly Asia and Eastern Europe.