WUNRN
TRICKED & TRAPPED - HUMAN
TRAFFICKING IN THE MIDDLE EAST - WOMEN & GIRLS
Direct Link to Full 180-Page 2013
Report:
3.2 SEX WORK
The 20 sex workers interviewed in
Lebanon, Jordan and the UAE came from Belarus, Jordan, Lebanon, Russia, Syria,
the Philippines, Tunisia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. All were women, between 19
and 40 years of age. Most came from urban areas, and identified themselves as coming
from either poor or middle-class families. The majority had completed secondary
school. A few had worked in the Middle East before, but most had migrated for
the first time. The majority of women interviewed claimed they had made the
decision to work abroad themselves. The research team also met with women and
men mployed in the entertainment industry, including waitresses and dancers,
and the owners, managers and security staff of nightclubs. Sex brokers (pimps)
and clients of sex workers were also interviewed. secondary sources of
information were used to provide further evidence and to show the particular
vulnerability of Asian and African women migrant workers to being deceived and
coerced into sexual exploitation. Additional data were gathered from a variety
of key informants, who shed light on the processes involved in the trafficking
of sex workers. These informants included government officials from ministries
of labour, interior, justice, foreign affairs and social affairs, as well as
government representatives of countries of origin stationed at embassies and
consulates. Information was also collected from representatives of workers’
organizations, migrant associations, and local and international NGOs in both
countries of origin and destination, as well as media professionals and
academics.The analysis of the data collected from both primary and secondary
sources revealed four main processes of human trafficking for sex work as
forced labour (table 3.2).
The first process involves the
voluntary recruitment of girls and women as domestic workers. Once in the
country of destination, they leave their employers, lured by promises of love
or a better job, only to be subsequently forced by their ‘boyfriends’, taxi
drivers or other intermediaries into commercial sexual exploitation. The second
process involves of women who have migrated to work as domestic workers,
nurses, teachers or waitresses, and are abducted upon arrival by their
freelance agents and obliged to provide commercial sexual services to clients
out of private or isolated apartments or villas. The third process involves the
recruitment of migrant women to work in nightclubs and bars. These women, often
referred to as “artists”, believe they will work as dancers, waitresses or
singers, but are deceived by their impresario or employer about the real nature
of the job and obliged to provide sexual services.
The fourth process involves women
who are deceived by relatives through the false promise of marriage and a
better life in another country, or whose relatives are deceived by husbands or
agents into allowing a daughter to travel abroad to work. In both scenarios, on
her arrival in the destination country the daughter is coerced to work in nightclubs,
bars or private apartments and earn a living through commercial sexual
exploitation.
