Despite the recent deportation of 85 Sierra Leonean women from Kuwait to Sierra Leone in May 2020, authorities in another West African country, Senegal, on June 23, 2020, arrested 87 young Sierra Leonean women, who had been brought to Dakar by a network of HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS and were waiting to be smuggled to the Middle East.
87 Young Women from Sierra Leone Smuggled into Senegal. Photo credit: SeneWeb
The 87 Sierra Leonean women in Senegal, who were found in houses in the suburbs of the capital Dakar, had been kept in hiding from the authorities, while the network of traffickers worked their magic to get them out of Dakar and across the desert, into Middle Eastern countries, such as Kuwait, Lebanon, etc., by all means possible. But thanks to the vigilance of the Senegalese authorities, this particular consignment of potential modern-day slaves has, hopefully, been saved.
Many of the recent deportees from Kuwait were the women whose video and audio messages we have all watched and heard, about being enslaved, tortured, and dehumanized in many other ways in Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries. Many of these women were appealing to the public to rescue them and help them return home to Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, and many more.
Photo credit: ThisIsSierraLeone.com
The Kuwaiti government, which had never cared much about the women’s plights, decided to deport the women back to their countries in the middle of the COVID 19 Pandemic.
Upon arrival in Sierra Leone, 67 of the deportees tested positive, even though the Kuwaiti government claimed they had tested negative before their departure.
The 85 Sierra Leonean women returned home with nothing but their breath, whatever illness they might have picked up and years of trauma that will forever haunt them emotionally, mentally, and probably physically.
HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS promise the women lucrative jobs as maids and childcare workers in the Middle East. But once they arrive, their passports are taken away from them by their employers, who treat them as slaves. The women work around the clock without pay or freedom to move around or leave.
A woman from Sierra Leone burned in Kuwait by her slavers. Photo credit: Abiodunborisade.com
The reasonable wo/man might think that after all this, the Middle East slave labor industry would have been shattered in Sierra Leone and Africa at large. But the reality is far from it.
In Sierra Leone, HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS are operating openly. Their advertisements are circulating mostly on WhatsApp open forums that have become the staple for young people in Sierra Leone. This makes one wonder whether the government of Sierra Leone is aware or just complacent about being a source country for this global slave labor industry.
On the issue of the women who were suffering in Kuwait and begging the Sierra Leone Embassy to rescue them, an Embassy official stated that,
Sierra Leonean housemaids working in Kuwait were recruited by agents approved by the Ministry of Labour of Sierra Leone with absolutely no knowledge of their presence by the Embassy of Sierra Leone in Kuwait (AYV Newspaper, 2020).
So, if the Sierra Leone Ministry of Labour is approving these recruitments, then that answers the question as to whether the Sierra Leone government is unaware of or complacent about HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS’ ability to openly operate in the country.
HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS in Sierra Leone are boldly transporting their chatel across the borders, to other West African countries for shipment to the Middle East into modern-day slavery and indentured servitude.
The image below is an example of the bold advertisement by recruiters in Sierra Leone, who are OPENLY sharing these ads on WhatsApp groups, and probably through other non-electronic means.
Sierra Leone Human Traffic Recruiters Advertisement
When this RECRUITER in the above ad was contacted, s/he informed the person that there was a group in Freetown that was ready to depart as soon as airline flights resume in Sierra Leone.
S/he advised that if the person wanted to be in the next group, the person should try and get a passport, a medical clearance, which s/he said would be provided by doctors in the HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS’ network.
S/he advised that the total cost is $10,000.00 (ten thousand US dollars) and the person would have to pay an initial amount, equivalent to $3,500 (three thousand five hundred US dollars). Upon completion of the process, the potential slave would pay the balance of $6,500 (six thousand five hundred US dollars) before leaving the country.
The ad even says that the potential slave can pay the balance at the airport; from this, we can deduce that none of the women are paying the full $10k before they leave the country. It would be impossible for these Sierra Leonean women, who are trying to flee poverty, to afford $10K. Even the women who engage in prostitution to pay for such a trip cannot accumulate such an amount in a short time. It is obvious that the only amount needed by the HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS is the $3,500 for the paperwork and airline tickets to their designated port of entry into the Middle East.
Ultimately, the potential slave is told to pay the balance of the money when she starts working in the Middle East, which is how slavery begins. The Middle East employers usually make payments directly to HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS; that is how they get paid and disappear from the sight of the enslaved women they recruit.
The reasonable wo/man may ask, ‘Why are young women putting themselves up for sale in the modern-day slave market?’ Here are some likely reasons:
- First of all, HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS are conmen, and women who are well-versed in the art of inducement.
- Young women in Sierra Leone see very little prospects in their future by staying in the country.
- The majority of young women are illiterate, as Sierra Leone has one of the lowest female literacy rates in the world.
All this and more, make young women in Sierra Leone easy prey for persuasive, sweet-talking HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS.
As authorities in Senegal have demonstrated by halting the passage of the 87 Sierra Leonean women into slavery, the government of Sierra Leone too can step up and play a major role in halting the operations of HUMAN TRAFFIC RECRUITERS in the country.
@Fatimababih
@Mama_Salone
#StopHumanTraffickingSierraLeone
#ModernDaySlavery
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Sources:
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 