Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Two members of a gang of human traffickers who exploited an underage girl inside a prostitution den were on Monday incarcerated for seven years.

The Asian builder, 28, worked as the brothel’s clerk and the compatriot visitor, 20, worked as its pimp. They teamed up with its fugitive boss and his colleague to lure the Bangladeshi girl, 17, into coming to the UAE.

They obtained for her a passport with an exaggerated age. They convinced her they would employ her as a masseuse.  The boss and colleague took her to the brothel in Al Quoz. She was forced into prostitution.

Besides human trafficking, both were convicted of taking part in running the brothel, facilitating activities to five (deported) streetwalkers and benefiting from their proceeds until police stormed on Apr.7, as per records.

Both confessed in court. The Dubai Criminal Court jailed them (and the boss in absentia) for seven years plus deportation. It ordered the confiscation of seized Dhs8, 860, notebooks and prostitution paraphernalia.

In prosecution records, the girl narrated that the boss and his colleague picked her up along with two other girls from the Dubai airport. The colleague stalled to take her to massage spa where she was supposed to work.  

She asked women in the apartment what they were doing. One laughed and told her the nature of their work. She was crying when the colleague entered and asked her. She told him she did not want that kind of work.

He vowed never to return her to her homeland unless she repaid 300, 000 Taka (Dhs13, 000) that was spent on bringing her to the UAE. He told her the only way to raise it was to join work. She cried and fell sick for a week.

Thereafter, he took her to the brothel being managed by the builder and the visitor. Whenever a client entered, the duo would put her and the other women on display for him to choose. He would then pay them Dhs80.

The colleague confined her to the brothel with the help of the builder and the visitor. She would narrate her ordeal to clients. An Asian client had pity on her and provided her a CID number. Her female friend called police.

An Emirati lieutenant said, “We nabbed the builder in the brothel and the visitor in the neighbourhood. The builder said the boss paid him Dhs3, 000 monthly. The visitor said he was pimping for Dhs1, 500 monthly.”