According to the available information, in
Kuwait surprisingly there are gangs that are involved in promoting forced
prostitution and their area of functioning is Jleeb Al Soyouk. The agents of these gangs are constantly
prowling on single females walking on the road, these agents as per available
information are Taxi Drivers, mainly from Pakistan and Bangladesh and their
victims are mainly Philippina girls.
These Taxi Drivers are very cruel and ruthless and they are paid
handsomely by their bosses who carry on with this trade clandestinely and of
course illegally. Their targets are
females with no valid residence permits and residing illegally in Kuwait and also
those who are persecuted by their employers and sponsors.
As appeared in print media recently, I cite an
example of 2 females who were victims of their misfortune by landing in such
brothels thru the chicanery of Pakistani Taxi drivers. Though the incidents are
two but both are identical in nature.
One was started on the road for one Filipina waiting for the Taxi to
take her to her Philippine Embassy to complain of her harassment by her
employer and to take shelter there in Philippine Embassy. Since she did not
know the location of her Embassy and route to go there she confessed her
ignorance to the taxi driver who capitalising on her ignorance and also on her
shattered condition, brought her to his boss in the brothel.
Taking custody of her the Pakistani boss told
her that he will provide her with a nice job and treated her nicely for two
days. On the third day he raped her and
told her that henceforth she will do the job of a prostitute serving 20 to 30
low grade customers which proposal she out rightly refused. Hearing her refusal the Pakistani boss got
angry and assaulted her ruthlessly till she agreed and she did agree only
because of her very young son living in Philippine waiting for his mother to
send him chocolates without knowing what mother is undergoing in Kuwait for his
sake.
She came to Kuwait to earn
money to bring up her only son nicely but things worked differently. She wanted to commit suicide instead of
undergoing this ordeal in the brothel serving 30 dirty customers without proper
rest and food but stopped doing so because she wanted to see her son whom she
loved so much.
She wanted to flee from that place but it was
very well fortified with three doors one of which was of Iron and to open it
you need the help of two able bodied muscular men. However, after two years she
got an opportunity to escape and taking advantage of this opportunity she fled
but during that lengthy period she was given by the Pakistani boss only Kuwaiti
Dinars Fifty. It was the worst type of prison for that poor lady.
Similarly, the other lady suffered the ordeal
but not for two years, only for 6 months but very torturous 6 months doling her
body against her own wish to the strange men from different nationalities. She
said the worst thing she had to do was to surrender her sacred body to someone sinful
whom she does not love and to whom she does not know even. Further she said
these men were so beastly that they were physically filthy and were treating
her like an animal; they were no doubt human beings but devoid of human culture
and human attributes seeking flesh pleasure very cheaply because they
themselves were cheap.
These are only two known examples but there are
so many such examples and incidents remained unknown. Because of this type of
incidents there are so many poor expatriate females undergoing forced
prostitution in Kuwait. It is surprising the authorities concerned are not succeeding
in eradicating this menace from Kuwait by applying rigid laws for such people
who are acting like hardened criminals.
In Kuwait nothing illicit can go unnoticed, here law and order situation
is very good otherwise and those going against the law and order are usually
reprimanded but still in Abbasiya, Jleeb Al Soyouk and elsewhere how forced
prostitution is going on is itself a big question mark.
To avoid such incidents and to prevent
Filipinas specially those ignorantly falling into the wrong hands, members of
the Filipino community involved in their Social, Church, Sports and other activities
must spread this message in their forums to alert their community members about
this danger. Unfortunately Philipinas in Kuwait by virtue of their good looks,
white skin, attractive presentation and soft heartedness are subjected to
sexual approaches.
As a matter of information, immediately following the invasion of Kuwait on
2nd August 1990, in Kuwait City Filipinas were harassed sexually by
the Iraqi invaders so much that they went underground within 48 hours of
invasion of Kuwait. When sex is concerned poor Filipinas are become easy target
in Kuwait.
It is not for Filipino community only, this
type of messages should be spread in all the communities residing in Kuwait
including Goan community that is having a vast number of domestics in Kuwait
and who may likely fall prey to this illicit trade of course as usual
ignorantly and unknowingly.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
