African Girls – Treatment of Human Trafficking Victims in Kuwait – Part 2

According to Mary, a young African girl from Zimbabwe who was lured to work as a slave in Kuwait, there are many girls and women from poor countries who are trapped in the Arab region.

Mary is one of the few fortunate African girls who happened to meet a kind slave owner; otherwise most young women who are lured or smuggled to work overseas are treated inhumanely. Mary’s boss allowed her to use a cellphone, she was given her own room and bed to sleep and she had access to good food that was served to guests and family in the house.

Beautiful African girls posing and playing in front of the camera

However, like other girls who are trapped in the Gulf region, a string of disappointing surprises was in store for her. Her job designation as a Maid turned out to be false; she was not going to be working for a hotel earning US$250 a month. Instead, she would be working for a slave owner. Girls like Mary are recruited through various channels by agents who are keen to cash in on the slave trade, which is thriving in many parts of the world, especially in Asian and Arab countries.

According to an interview with Mary, some of her friends are regretting their decision to accept the offers of employment in the Gulf region. One of her friends named Rudo (pseudo name) had a horrible experience with her boss.

Rudo was one of several girls who responded to an advert in the local newspapers in Zimbabwe. The advert was looking for young women and girls to work in Kuwait as Maids. The only requirement was that the candidates had to be female and healthy, that is HIV negative. Girls who passed the HIV test were given job offers to work overseas in Kuwait. They were not going to pay the expenses related to immigration and relocation. The recruitment agency paid for the candidates’ flight tickets, meals and airport shuttles.

If you are a poor girl from Africa, Asia, South America, Latin America and the Caribbean, it is hard to resist such an offer. The recruitment agents will never reveal the true nature of the job which the recruits will find themselves in once they arrive at the destination. They take advantage of the desperation of girls in third world countries who will jump at the opportunity to work for a measly US$250 a month, which is more than enough for most of them.

Once Rudo was recruited by her Zimbabwean agents in the capital city (Harare), she and other Zimbabwean girls who passed the HIV Test were given their air tickets to board a plane at Harare International Airport. A connecting flight landed them in Kuwait where they were escorted by agents on arrival. Each girl was taken to her boss’s house, where she would be working as a “Maid”.

Unlike Mary who was treated well, Rudo did not have that experience. Her boss treated her like a dog. She did not have a room to sleep in. She was told to sleep in the verandah on a thin mattress. She did not have a bed and her only meals were scraps of food left by guests and family members during lunch and supper.

She was told to wake up at 5 am every morning, to start her chores like cleaning, washing and cooking. She was supposed to cook for guests anytime of the day or night. Traditionally, Arab families are large, and usually live together in a big house with many rooms. There might be over 20 people in the house to cook food for every night and day. You can imagine the amount of labor that is required to take care of such a number of people.

Rudo managed to escape her Kuwait captor’s home, and she is back in Zimbabwe, narrating her ordeal to the local media. The story circulated in the media, and this got the attention of the police who initiated an investigation. Seven Zimbabwean suspects who were responsible for recruiting unsuspecting girls in Harare were arrested and their passports were confiscated. The suspects are out on bail, but as the investigations revealed, a former Kuwait Embassy official was also implicated in the human trafficking syndicate. It turns out there was a Zimbabwean agent based in Kuwait who was facilitating the trade of opportunity-seeking girls to recruiters in Kuwait. He is reported to have vanished when news of the bust came out.

According to Mary, there are a lot of African girls who are trapped in Kuwait, and they have no means of going back to their countries. Most are in an abusive work environment, where they work long hours as slaves.

[True Story from STAR FM radio]

African Girls – Story of Human Trafficking Victim in Kuwait

Mary (not her real name),a young Zimbabwean woman says she worked a regular job in China for about 3 years before meeting her human traffickers disguised as recruitment agents. After responding to an advert, the agents approached her with promises of a well-paying job in Kuwait. One of the job offers on the list was that of “Maid”, which Mary was interested in. She was then taken to the airport, along with other job-seeking women from developing countries. These are third world countries where opportunities are few. A monthly salary of US$250 working an odd job at a hotel or restaurant is quite attractive for these young African girls and women.

Attractive African girl looking down her chest

At the airport, Mary met girls from poor African countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Chad, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Nigeria. There were also a lot of women and girls from poor Asia Pacific regions such as The Philippines and India.

Before going to the airport, the women had a briefing with the agents. They were told not to reveal their purpose of travel when quizzed by the airport immigration officials. They were not going to reveal that they are going for jobs in Kuwait or any region. If quizzed by the authorities, they would say that they are on a holiday trip or tourists in transit. Mary and her companions were detained for 14 hours at the airport for questioning, and in that time, they only had one meal and quite dehydrated.

The recruiting agents disappeared as soon as they arrived at the airport, telling the women not to disclose their names and recruiting agency. The instructions were to be followed or else the women would be arrested and deported to their countries. Women who followed the agent’s instructions managed to pass through for the next flight to Kuwait, and those who succumbed to the interrogation or failed the interview were detained.

Mary finally arrived in Kuwait, she had survived the interrogation. As she landed at the airport, someone was waiting to receive her. Her passport was handed to the household owner who was going to be her boss. She started working the same night that she arrived. They gave her clothes to wear, an Arab gown and bhurka, as is the tradition in Arab countries. The house which was to be Mary’s workplace had 18 rooms, and she was supposed to clean this big house with the help of another slave, an Ethiopian woman who was lured to this place by a recruitment agency. Although Mary was treated kindly by the household owners, the work was just too much for her and the other woman. There were no breaks to rest or some time off from work. She was working 20 hours a day with only 4 hours of rest between 1 am and 5 am. She woke up at 5 am daily to sweep the floors, wash the clothes of multiple family members and guests in the house. When she was not cleaning the house or washing clothes, she was cooking food for everyone in the house and washing dishes.

Like most unsuspecting and enslaved African girls who are trapped in the Gulf region, it didn’t take long for Mary to realize that this was not the job she envisaged. It was nothing but slavery. She had imagined herself working for a formal employer in a hotel or guest house, but here she was working for a slave owner with no benefits or pay. The recruitment agents had lied to her.

After a few days, Mary decided to quit. She told her boss, who was not exactly pleased with her decision. The boss told her to pay back a sum of US$2500.00 if she wanted to quit the job. 

Apparently and unbeknown to Mary, her boss was one of the clients who had paid the recruitment agents a fee of US$2500 to find them a slave. Without paying back the money, which was supposed to be refunded by the recruitment agent, Mary was not going to get her passport back nor be allowed to leave.

Mary was frustrated.Fortunately, she had a cellphone which she was allowed to keep, and the house had wifi. Through whatsapp, Mary sent a message to her parents in Zimbabwe. She told them of her ordeal and situation in Kuwait. Her parents made contact with embassies in Kuwait and Zimbabwe. The Zim Embassy in Kuwait proved to be unhelpful. They told her that they had no resources to send her back to Zimbabwe, and advised her to pay the US$2500 demanded by the owner. When it was clear that no help was coming from the Zimbabwean government, Mary’s parents decided to buy a return air ticket. They sent the flight ticket to the embassy, and with the intervention of the Kuwait presidential palace, the situation was urgently resolved.

Mary returned safely to Zimbabwe, where she narrated her ordeal to local radio stations. [This is a true story from ZiFM Spotlight program which aired on Thursday, 24 March 2016]