Pak, Indian and Nepali girls are coaxed to work in Kenya adult industry
By Web Deskupdated : 4 months ago
Kenya: 10 August 2019: An increasing number of women and girls are leaving South Asian nations such as Nepal, India and Pakistan to work in Bollywood-style dance bars in Kenya's adult entertainment industry - many illegally - according to anti-trafficking activists and police.There is no official data on the numbers but the results of police raids, combined with figures on the repatriation of rescued women, suggest scores of women and underage girls are victims of organised human trafficking from South Asia to Kenya.
Latest figures from Nepal's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) showed 43 women and girls were repatriated from dance bars in Kenya and neighbouring Tanzania in 2016-2017.Police and anti-trafficking groups have repeatedly voiced concerns that some of these private clubs are used as a front to ensnare women and girls, some in sex slavery, with women forced to pay off loans by erotic dancing or having sex with clients.Sheela and the other women rescued from the Mombasa club told,they were forced to have sex with customers.
In Kenya, many local women and girls are promised good jobs only to be enslaved in domestic servitude or forced into prostitution - often in the sex tourism industry.Kenya is home to about 328,000 modern-day slaves - about one in 143 of its population - according to the Global Slavery Index by the Walk Free Foundation, an Australia-based rights group.
In recent years, police raids on mujra bars uncovered organised human trafficking from South Asia to Kenya, a trend highlighted by the United States in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.The raids have helped us understand the modus operandi of traffickers in Kenya who have agents overseas to recruit women for them," an official from Kenya's Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said on condition of anonymity.They are offered jobs as cultural dancers and given around one month's salary in advance.
But when they arrive, their movements are restricted and they have to do erotic and sexually explicit dancing - and often have to have sex with clients.Such victims enter Kenya either on a three-month tourist visa on arrival for South Asians or on a special temporary work permit for cultural performers, according to the DCI official.
Sheela and the other 11 women rescued in Mombasa said they came to Kenya separately over the past nine months on flights through India and Ethiopia arranged by the club owner.In court testimonies, the women, aged 16 to 34, said they were told to carry hand luggage only and tell immigration officials they were visiting friends or family in Kenya.
Pak, Indian and Nepali girls are coaxed to work in Kenya adult industry
By Web Deskupdated : 4 months ago
Kenya: 10 August 2019: An increasing number of women and girls are leaving South Asian nations such as Nepal, India and Pakistan to work in Bollywood-style dance bars in Kenya's adult entertainment industry - many illegally - according to anti-trafficking activists and police.There is no official data on the numbers but the results of police raids, combined with figures on the repatriation of rescued women, suggest scores of women and underage girls are victims of organised human trafficking from South Asia to Kenya.
Latest figures from Nepal's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) showed 43 women and girls were repatriated from dance bars in Kenya and neighbouring Tanzania in 2016-2017.Police and anti-trafficking groups have repeatedly voiced concerns that some of these private clubs are used as a front to ensnare women and girls, some in sex slavery, with women forced to pay off loans by erotic dancing or having sex with clients.Sheela and the other women rescued from the Mombasa club told,they were forced to have sex with customers.
In Kenya, many local women and girls are promised good jobs only to be enslaved in domestic servitude or forced into prostitution - often in the sex tourism industry.Kenya is home to about 328,000 modern-day slaves - about one in 143 of its population - according to the Global Slavery Index by the Walk Free Foundation, an Australia-based rights group.
In recent years, police raids on mujra bars uncovered organised human trafficking from South Asia to Kenya, a trend highlighted by the United States in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.The raids have helped us understand the modus operandi of traffickers in Kenya who have agents overseas to recruit women for them," an official from Kenya's Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said on condition of anonymity.They are offered jobs as cultural dancers and given around one month's salary in advance.
But when they arrive, their movements are restricted and they have to do erotic and sexually explicit dancing - and often have to have sex with clients.Such victims enter Kenya either on a three-month tourist visa on arrival for South Asians or on a special temporary work permit for cultural performers, according to the DCI official.
Sheela and the other 11 women rescued in Mombasa said they came to Kenya separately over the past nine months on flights through India and Ethiopia arranged by the club owner.In court testimonies, the women, aged 16 to 34, said they were told to carry hand luggage only and tell immigration officials they were visiting friends or family in Kenya.
