| ||||||||||||||||
"Now I live with my two children and mother. I am an engineer. Who needs my knowledge here? It was my neighbour who told me about an agency that recruits women to do cleaning work at families in Dubai. I was very happy when I found that they were going to buy my ticket and pay me a small advance to get there. When we arrived in Dubai my passport was taken away and I was told to prostitute myself. I cried for two months. I was forced to do it because of the debts imposed on me. The pimp was coming to collect money every day. I could not hide a cent. There was no place in the room, and the clothes we were given had no pockets. Neither could I hide the number of customers I was attending, because a man at the hotel reception received money to report to the pimp on the number of clients. I was lucky that the police raided the hotel where I was staying and I was deported back. I heard that there are many real jobs in America, but I cannot go there because I have a deportation stamp in my passport."
Source: IOM /// "Trafficking in Women and Children from the Republic of Armenia: A Study" (IOM, 2001, ISBN 92-9068-114-4)