2 women recount ordeal as sex slaves in Saudi Arabia
By Jeannette Andrade
Inquirer
Last updated 00:51am (Mla time) 10/17/2007
MANILA, Philippines – Nearly three years after they were allegedly turned into sex slaves by a Saudi Arabian prince, Lina, 19 and Anna, 20, (not their real names) are still seeking justice and asking the government for help.
Breaking their silence for the first time in more than two years, the two young women talked about their ordeal at a press conference yesterday organized by the Kanlungan Center Foundation Inc. and the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) Asia-Pacific in Quezon City.
“I want to get justice. I want to tell other women from the provinces that this can happen when they seek greener pastures abroad,” Anna said.
The two said they were promised jobs as chamber maids in a hotel in Saudi Arabia in January 2005.
Anna recounted how she was driven into applying for a job abroad because she wanted to help her family in Cagayan de Oro.
The two claimed they were taken to a hotel owned by the prince where he allegedly raped them repeatedly. They added that they were lucky they were able to return home after a few months.
Both blamed the agency which recruited them, saying its officials lied about their age to allow them to leave the country. It also tried to cover up the case, they added.
Jean Gutierrez of CATW Asia-Pacific said most of those who exploit women take advantage of desperate overseas job seekers.
“Hundreds of women, like Anna and Lina, with the simple desire to alleviate their plights are being exploited by recruiters,” Gutierrez pointed out, stressing that the two women have been receiving threats simply because they are seeking justice.
The CATW Asia-Pacific executive director revealed that the victims have been charged with estafa, libel and perjury by the recruitment agency.
Loida Bernabe of the Kanlungan Center, meanwhile, lamented that the secretary of the department whom their group approached to seek assistance even blamed Lina and Anna’s parents for their daughters’ misfortune.
“They are the victims but now, they are considered criminals by the government agencies,” Bernabe said.
Lina’s mother said they went to the Department of Foreign Affairs and then to the Department of Justice for help, “but nobody helped us.”
“We just want justice for what happened to our daughter and her friend. They may pay us off to try to stop our crusade, but we will never allow that. We do not want this thing to ever happen to anybody else,” the victim’s father, a taxi driver, stressed.
|