'Facebook' human trade ring busted by Dubai

Dubai’s police busted a human trade ring involving an Arab man who brought three Latin American girls to the emirate through Facebook and forced them to practice prostitution in the first vice case involving a social networking site.

Units from the anti-organise crime division stormed an apartment in the emirate and seized the man and he three girls, who all confessed to the crime.

The girls told police they knew the man through Facebook and that he misled them into believing he wants to be their friends and would find jobs for them in Dubai.

Once they arrived, he took them to his flat and had sex with them before forcing them to indulge in vice by hunting for customers at nightclubs.

“He received them at the airport, took them to his apartment and had sex with them…he later forced them to go out and hunt for customers are night clubs…he was beating them up if they return to the flat without money,” said Major Wisam Al Darai, head of the anti-human trade unit.

He told 'Emarat Al Youm' daily that the defendant denied he was involved in human trade and that he beat them up because they came back to his apartment drunk and tried to make fool of him.

“It is the first case in which victims are used through the social networking website …he used friendship and love words to play on their feelings and make them believe he would find good jobs for them,” said Colonel Abdul Rahim bin Shafeei, director of the anti-organised crime division.

He said the defendant has accomplice, including a man who rented the apartment for them and another who arranged the visas for the girls. 

A housemaid was also arrested for working illegally at that apartment and knew what was going on, he added.

According to 'Emarat Al Youm', Dubai recorded 18 human trade cases in 2011, involving 32 victims who included one under 15 years and 10 under 20.
 

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