“All I could think of was how to escape... I ran out of the house and into the street. I kept running until I saw a taxi.”

Mona, 20

The 20-year-old from Asia was working in her home country but dreamt of bigger things. Often at work, she would share with a co-worker her dreams of working in Dubai and one day, her co-worker told her that she knew someone who could help her.

Soon a man came to visit Mona at her workplace and told her that he would get her a job in his sister’s salon in the UAE. All he needed from her was Dh15,000. “I told him I don’t know anything about working in a salon but he said it wasn’t a problem and that they would train me.”

So she put together whatever money she had, borrowed some from her parents and gave it all to the man. The amount was less than what he had asked for but he told her that she could pay him the rest when she started work at the salon.

On the day of departure for the UAE, at the airport, “I met a woman and another girl and the woman gave us both our passports. The girl, like me, was also going to the UAE for work. We both were so excited.”

Upon arrival in the UAE, they were taken to an apartment and told to rest. “For the first 10 days, the woman took us around town, to restaurants and told us to enjoy ourselves before the work began. So we did.”

Soon, the fun ended and the woman told them it was time to start work — which was to have sex with men and be paid for it.

“I was in shock, I thought she was joking. I said no, I am here to work in a salon. She replied that she didn’t have a salon and that ‘the only job I have is this’.”

A shattered Mona begged the woman to let her go but her pleas were ignored. What happened next was a man came to the house and harangued Mona on why she was making such a fuss. “I begged him but….he was a very bad man...” He took her into a bedroom and made her do unspeakable things.

Day in and day out, men streamed into the apartment and once they were done with Mona, they moved on to the other two girls in the house. On average, her captors brought six men a night and a few during the day. When there were no visitors, the women were kept locked in their rooms and the woman captor would come along to check on them. “All I could think about was how to escape.” She finally got an opportunity one day when the woman trafficker headed for the bathroom forgetting to lock the bedroom door. “I ran out of the house and into the street. I kept running until I saw a taxi.”

She asked the taxi driver to take her to the nearest police station. At the police station, she told the officers everything about her condition and based on her description, the police raided the apartment but her captors were not there. So a plan was hatched by the police and CID to lure the traffickers into meeting her. “I was scared to meet that ‘bad man’ again but the CID assured me that he would not be able to harm me.”

She met the man at a public location and got into his car to go to the apartment where she was supposed to get her passport back. Unknown to the man, the CID were tracking them. “I was so scared, I was holding the phone in my pocket tight just in case.

“When we got to the house, I froze. I didn’t want to go back in there. Before I knew it, the street was filled with police and the CID. They arrested the man and everyone in the house.”

The raid helped rescue a number of women in captivity, including the young woman who travelled with Mona. Mona has not told her family about what befell her as she fears they will disown her. Instead, she has told them that she is not able to return due to visa issues.

Mona spent around three months in captivity.