President Ramos-Horta concerned by reports of female workers being exploited in Dubai
Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta wants exploited migrant workers to be repatriated. (Photo: AFP)
Police in Timor-Leste have arrested two foreign nationals for allegedly being involved in a human trafficking case in which several women were smuggled into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) without proper documents.
The male suspects, from Bahrain and Sudan respectively, were detained by the Timor-Leste Criminal and Scientific Investigation Police (TL-CSIP) at Nicolau Lobato Airport in capital Dili when they arrived from Indonesia on June 24.
Adino Cabral, deputy director of TL-CSIP, said the men were suspected of collaborating with three Timor-Leste citizens who had been arrested previously.
They were suspected of being part of a network of human traffickers, with victims including seven Timorese female workers who were sent to Dubai without proper documents.
“The suspects communicated with each other through online transnational crimes, saying that they would recruit more Timorese to work overseas. Their communications were identified by the police,” Cabral said.
The plight of female workers in Dubai has been in the spotlight in Timor-Leste, including from President Jose Ramos-Horta after state news agency Tatoli reported on the problem.
“They promised us a lot of good things. They told us that in Dubai we can work while studying at the same time. But what we are experiencing today is just the opposite”
Women told the news agency that they went to Dubai two months ago without signing an employment contract and all their documents were confiscated by the employer. They said they were lied to by the agency that recruited them.
“They promised us a lot of good things. They told us that in Dubai we can work while studying at the same time. But what we are experiencing today is just the opposite. Imagine, we live in the worst place compared to our home country,” said one woman.
The women said they work every day from 9am to 9pm and earn only US$54 per month.
The workers said they had asked to return to Timor-Leste but their current employers were demanding $80,000 in compensation for the money they had spent sending them to Dubai.
Ramos-Horta has asked government officials to address the workers’ problems and help repatriate them to the Catholic-majority country.
According to the US Department of State’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Timor-Leste.
“Poor economic conditions and limited educational opportunities create trafficking vulnerabilities for Timorese nationals, in particular women and girls,” it said.
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