Promise of fake jobs in Delhi leads to forced prostitution

Raheema (name changed) after being deserted by her husband initiated her search for a decent job opportunity. She is a 26-year-old woman who came to Delhi from Uzbekistan in April 2019 in search of work. As soon as she landed at Delhi airport, all her belongings along with her passport were captured by the middlemen who afterward locked her in a room of a flat located in South Delhi.

 She was forced to please the sexual needs of several men who visited her. Raheema mentioned many other women who were kept in the same way along with her. Raheema said, “We were not given any money. To make matters worse, none of us knew the local language”. The women were brutally beaten if they refused the customer or attempted to flee. They were given drugs and some of them became addicted to them.

Raheema was one of the seven brave girls who fortunately fled and reached the Ubezkistan Embassy in Chanakyapuri. Again problems aroused as they were unable to provide any valid document of their identity and were not permitted to step into the embassy premises. Fortunately, NGO Empowering Humanity saved them and helped them to file an FIR with Delhi Police. Charges of trafficking, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, extortion, and many more were registered in Chanakyapuri Police Station. The copy of the FIR is with TOI. Five persons involved in the racket were arrested.

Most of the women confessed to being married at a young age and having children at home. After being deserted by their husband, they came to India for a job they desperately needed. One of them arrived in India in October 2019 at the age of 17. Another 22-year-old woman came in January of this year.

The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Delhi Police arrested numerous men and women for bringing women from Uzbek to India illegally. 11 women were rescued whose stories were similar to Raheema's. An investigation is still going on to capture all the people involved in this crime. While witnessing the rate of rackets in India Hemant Sharma, a social worker and a volunteer at Empowering Humanity commented “This is the issue. The victims themselves become the accused because they can’t produce identity and travel documents, which are taken from them by smugglers.