DSI rescues Thai women tricked and forced into prostitution in Dubai

DSI rescues Thai women tricked and forced into prostitution in Dubai

       On August 4, 2022, at around 3.30 p.m., the DSI by its Bureau of Human Trafficking Crime, together with the Alliance Anti Trafic Thailand Foundation and the IMF (Immanuel Foundation), internationally coordinated to rescue 3 Thai women, who were tricked into detention and forced into prostitution by a broker gang in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, returning to Thailand safely.

       The case resulted from the DSI receiving a request from a person to rescue his girlfriend who traveled to work in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and was being forced to prostitute herself in an entertainment venue. Mr. Triyarith Temahivong, (the Director-General of the DSI) ordered the Bureau of Human Trafficking Crime to urgently rescue and investigate to find the trafficker network. The Bureau’s officers therefore coordinated with the Alliance Anti Trafic Thailand Foundation and the IMF to rescue the victims from the trafficking location and safely escorted them back to the Suvarnabhumi Airport.

       The incident occurred in around June 2022. The victims were persuaded via a Thai traditional masseurs recruiting announcement posted on a Facebook group “Ha Ngan Tang Prated” (Seeking oversea jobs). When questioned, the brokers would detail the job as Thai traditional massage for 80,000 - 100,000 baht salary with welfare in the form of free accommodation and meals. The tricked victims who believed and applied for the job and traveled to Dubai as previous persuasion had their passports immediately confiscated by the brokers and been detained in the venue. The brokers and the venue overseers then threatened the victims that each of them owned hundreds of thousand baht in debts and they had to work in prostitution to repay such debts, or else they would be physically assaulted and sent to lower level brothels

       The DSI would like to warn people not to believe the brokers offering Thai traditional massage jobs in foreign countries with high salary, good living condition, no forced prostitution, etc. Any person wishes to work abroad can directly contact the Department of Employment, Ministry of Labour. If you have information of or clues to human trafficking, you can inform the DSI via its Hotline 1202 (toll free nationwide). The information of the informant will be kept confidential.

Dated August 6, 2022