The Hardships of Migrant Women in the UAE. This dichotomy between the dazzling opulence and the darker realities of life in the UAE beckons us to explore the untold narratives that exist behind the glittering curtain.
For migrant women in the UAE, life is both resilience and struggle. Their journey often leads them down a treacherous path where they encounter exploitation, discrimination, and the arduous battle for their rights, often falling prey to human trafficking.
Once arrived in the UAE, victims of human trafficking, particularly women, face various forms of exploitation and abuse.
Forced Prostitution
Many trafficked women are forced into prostitution against their will. They are coerced into providing sexual services to clients, often under deplorable conditions, with no control over their earnings.
Debt Bondage
Some victims are trapped in debt bondage schemes, where they are made to believe they owe their traffickers money for transportation, accommodation, or other expenses incurred during their journey. They are then forced to work in prostitution until this debt is deemed paid off, which can take years if not a lifetime.
Physical and Sexual Abuse
Victims are subjected to physical and sexual abuse by their traffickers, pimps, or clients. They endure violence, threats, and rape, leaving them physically and emotionally scarred.
Confiscation of Identification and Freedom
Traffickers confiscate the victims’ passports and identification documents, leaving them entirely dependent on their captors. This restriction on their freedom of movement makes escape nearly impossible.
Isolation and Confinement
Victims are often isolated from the outside world, and confined to brothels, apartments, or other locations where they are exploited. They have limited contact with the outside world, making it difficult for them to seek help.
Psychological Manipulation
Traffickers employ psychological manipulation tactics to control their victims. They use threats against the victims’ families, inflict mental anguish, and instill fear to maintain dominance.
Economic Exploitation
Victims of human trafficking in the UAE are frequently denied access to the earnings they generate. Their traffickers and pimps confiscate their income, leaving them financially dependent on their exploiters.
Health Risks
Victims are often denied access to healthcare and subjected to health risks due to their living and working conditions. They are exposed to sexually transmitted infections, violence-related injuries, and other health hazards.
Child Trafficking
Some victims of human trafficking in the UAE are minors who are forced into commercial sexual exploitation. Child victims face even more significant physical, psychological, and emotional risks.
The Hardships of Migrant Women in the UAE: Victim’s circumstances
Many victims are driven by dire economic circumstances. The promise of a well-paying job abroad is often too tempting to resist, even if it means taking a perilous journey into the unknown.
Limited access to education in countries of origin often leaves women with few options. Without the skills or qualifications needed for other employment, they become susceptible to traffickers’ false promises.
Some victims are coerced into the sex trade by family members or acquaintances who have already fallen victim to traffickers. Threats, violence, and manipulation are commonly used tactics to control and exploit these individuals.
Their struggles, though hidden in plain sight, are no less real. It is a reality that the world often chooses to avert its gaze from as if pretending that these hardships are not unfolding right before our eyes. In this indifference, we unwittingly become complicit. We become complicit when we turn a blind eye to their suffering when we ignore their pleas for justice and dignity.
