Eight women of old city of Hyderabad were allegedly sold to some Arab families in various parts of United Arab Emirates for ₹2 lakh each to work as maids.
This was contained in two representations made to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar by relatives of the victims
They pointed out that the women were offered jobs as salespersons in a shopping mall in Dubai by a Hyderabad-based agent Shafi. All of them were flown to Dubai in September and October on a three-month visit visa and handed over to a recruiting agency there which sold them to Arab families.
They said their kin were made to work for a minimum of 15 hours daily without proper food and accommodation and tortured badly. They were sometimes sexually assaulted if they failed to heed the advice. They were not paid any salary since landing in Dubai. When their plight was conveyed to kin here, the local agent was asked to arrange their return journey. But, he demanded ₹ 1.5 lakh each which they could not afford.
The kin requested the Union Minister to contact the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Indian Consulate in Dubai to repatriate the victims as soon as possible.
Two victims were sisters and were allegedly landed with Al-Safeer agency in Dubai which tied up with Arab families to hand them over as maids. Another woman was asked to undergo quarantine for two weeks and then sent to an Arab family.
It was said the local agent Shafi was picked up by the police of task force and referred to Central Crime State for investigation.
