Kerala Monitor: Women Trafficking from Kerala to Gulf

Malayali Girl from Ernakulam had a narrow Escapes from Sex Mafia KERALA MONITOR SPECIAL REPORT SERIES Malayalis arrested for kidnapping Malayali girls from Gulf airports keralamonitor.com August 6,2001 Dubai and Muscat: Giving another sensational dimension to the growing sex trafficking from Kerala to various Gulf countries, two Malayali ladies from Trichur, were kidnapped and illegally kept in brothels. One of the girls was sold by a Malayali agent to another brothel just for Omani Rial 300 (Rs.35,000)! The Royal Oman Police have arrested more than 10 Indians, majority of them Malayalis including 2 women who have been involved in kidnapping the Malayali girls from the Seeb International airport, Muscat and forcing them to work in brothels. The incident took place in the second week of June 2001 (10th) when the girls hailing from two poor neighbouring families in Thrichur district reached the Seeb International Airport, Muscat from Kerala on their way to Khasab to work as housemaids. The kidnap drama was staged when the girls recruited by Khasab Air Travels, which has an office in Ernakulam to work as housemaids, were waiting for the connection flight to Khasaba, where the Malayali travel agent was awaiting them. "As the connection flight from Muscat to Khasab (an interior region) is only in the morning the victims were waiting in the airport. As they were new to the place and totally confused the girls approached some Malayalis in the airport with the phone number and name of the Malayali Travel Agent. Afterwards one person (Raju) approached them introducing him with a placard showing the name and phone number of the agent (Bashir of Khasab Air Travels) and told them that the flight ticket is not ok and the journey is postponed for one day. The girls who are new to Gulf believed that the main culprit (Kaleppalli Krishnan son Raju, from Palakkadu) who introduced himself with the name of the real agent and went with him in his car. However, he took them to a hide out and apparently used them for prostitution. According to the Khasab Air Travels officials the main culprit sold one of the girls to another culprit for RO 300. When one of the culprits was trying to smuggle the girl to Dubai through a check post in Oman-UAE boarder area, he was arrested with the girl. Search for the second girl is said to be going on . It is suspected that the gang, involving many members, has duped large number of Malayali girls in this fashion. Buying and selling girls is said to be common practice among such criminals. When arrested by the CID Department of ROP the main culprits were fully armed with knife and other weapons. While one girl is in Sohar police station the search for the second girl is on. "I had brought the two girls with the help of my sponsor. I had told them what they should do when they arrive at Seeb International Airport. But, unfortunately, they must have been fooled by this gang into believing that it was me who they were with. "We are yet to establish how they had done it. At the moment, this part of it is not clear but, hopefully, we will get to the root of the matter soon. "Since the girls did not arrive on the flight, I informed my agent in India, who however insisted that the girlshad flown here. I checked with Seeb International Airport and they informed that these two girls (names withheld to protect their identity) had actually landed but did not board the flight to Khasab. According to the Eranakulam based travel agent with offices in Oman (Khasab), India (Ernakulam) and the UAE he brought the girls to Oman to work as housemaids for two Omani families and he is totally innocent. He himself lodged a complaint in Khasab police station, persuaded the case and got the main culprits arrested. The arrested gang members included eight Keralite men — Raju (Palakkad), Babu (alias Majid), Mani, Biju, Baiju, Bashir, Unni (Kollam) and Ravi. — and three women (two Sri Lankans and one Keralite). Besides, a Keralite woman Ajitha ( from Thiruvananthapuram) has been under "house arrest". Apparently the girls made phone calls to their home saying that they are all right. It must have been forcefully done by the culprits. However after sometimes they send letters to the parents saying that they were in the custody of an agent. The girl who was arrested along with one culprit in the boarder check post sent a letter informing her parents that they were in the custody of the agent who recruited them. The relatives got furious and started creating some trouble in their hometown. It was a do or die situation for the travel agent, who claims he has been doing a decent business to help the poor girls. "I had to prove my innocence in the case because initially the girls believed that the problem occurred because of us. In fact it is due to the drama staged by the culprits that the girls wrote letters to their parent saying that the agent is to be blamed." The event indicates the magnitude of the sex trafficking from India to various Gulf countries. Recently a social organisation has listed the name of more than 15 Malayalis who are engaged in such illicit business. As the UAE government has strengthened visa norms to expatriate women from various Asian countries and Russia, there is a new route followed by the agents via Muscat. Since the visa norms have been made liberal, girls are brought to Oman and from there taken to the UAE through land route. Malayali Girl from Ernakulam had a narrow Escapes from Sex Mafia Forced to give statement in front of Video Camera Cochin: Ending one and half month period saga, the Malayali women from Ernakulam who was recruited by a Malayali agent to work in Oman as housemaid, has reached home safely. In a special interview given to keralamonitor at Cochin, the girl has alleged that even though she was recruited by one Malayali agent -Mr.Maniraj from Ernakula to work as housemaid, he had been behaving badly with her.Full Report ..