God made man; man made
Dubai, a glittering city in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E). Dubai with a
population of a little over two million (the largest city in the UAE) is one of
the seven emirates that make up the country. Compared to many countries in the
world, Dubai approximates to heaven’s gate. It glitters both at day and at
night. The visa policy is liberal. At the snap of the fingers, you can get visa
to Dubai ranging from two weeks to months. Because it is a city that thrives on
tourism, it depends far less on revenue from oil; immigration procedure is also
relaxed, comparatively. There are few countries in the world that better the
profile of Dubai in terms of cosmopolitanity. Dubai is cosmopolitan and it is
home to people from every part of the world. It is not the capital of UAE, Abu
Dhabi is, but it dwarfs other emirates in popularity and tourism equity.
Because of its liberal
visa policy and cosmopolitan nature, men and women from all over the world and
with diverse missions, some tending towards lewdness, congregate in Dubai. Walk
into any department store or shopping mall; you are likely to accost women from
Russia, Britain, all parts of Africa, Asia especially Filipinos and Chinese.
They are there for business, a special type of business….yes, for prostitution.
You may have heard that the whole of the UAE hold to some values and virtues
especially those values that promote chastity and puritanism. It is true. Here
in Dubai, you are not permitted to hawk sex, commercial sex workers are
abhorred, alcohol is prohibited and banned from the shelves of stores
especially in the bars of some hotels. Here in Dubai, pornography is anathema
including using the internet to surf through gay, lesbian and lewd sites. Dubai
has very strict laws against sex outside marriage. For instance, two persons of
opposite sex are not allowed to share a hotel room except they are husband and
wife. Sex outside marriage attracts jail sentence if proven. Last year, a
32-year-old Saudi tourist was jailed for one year after he was said to have
slept with a 34-year-old Uzbek woman in his hotel room. The woman got three
years after admitting to prostitution. Those convicted of having sex outside
marriage face a sentence of between one month and three years under Dubai law.
Yet, there is a curious
twist of irony to the whole tale. In the midst of this regime of do’s and
don’ts, prostitution still flourishes in this enchanting city. And Nigerian
women for reasons bordering on hardship at home have found a lucrative trade in
the Dubai sex market. These women, some in their twenties and thirties flock to
Dubai with tourist visa, operate as commercial sex workers for months and use
the money to buy goods for sale in Nigeria.
Recently, this writer
slipped into the underworld of the Dubai sex market in the Deira area of the
city. Deira is the older part of Dubai with a strong community of Indians,
Pakistanis and persons from Bangladesh. It also has a huge sprinkling of Asians
and Africans. It is a busy part of the city buzzing with commerce. Everywhere
in Deira is a shop, a trading post of sort, where everything, including sex, is
sold. Hotels, most of them lowly priced by Dubai high standards, dot the
landscape. The hotels have night clubs. Dubai has one of the most active night
lives. Pubs and bars begin to fill up in the evening hours when people frolic
to escape the intense heat of the day. Deira is the epicentre of downtown
Dubai. Its strength is the population density made up of people from all parts
of the world. But it is in this mix of humanity that Deira provides a fitting
platform for commercial sex workers.
INSIDE ASTRAF
HOTEL
Our guide, Emeka, took
this writer through the red light district of Deira. Destination: Astraf Hotel.
This is a seedy low-grade hotel that has transformed to a brothel. Astraf Hotel
sits at 19C Street by Community 118 in the heart of town. The ground floor of
the multi-storey building houses several stores from electronics shops to
fabrics sales outposts. Entry into the hotel is easy. Nobody queries your reason
for visiting. The receptionist, an Indian with a small oval face, merely
glanced at you as you walk briskly up the stairwell. Nothing outside the
building betrays the harlotry inside the hotel. But as soon as you fly up the
staircase unto the first floor, the drama begins. Half-clad Nigerian girls have
taken up temporary tenancy in different rooms in the hotel. They stand by their
doorways to hunt for clients. Their clients are mainly visiting African
men including Nigerians, Asians and Arabs.
According to our guide,
a fling with Nigerian girls goes for 50DH. Prices vary with the nationality of
the ladies. Many women from different parts of Africa operate as commercial sex
workers in Dubai. Moroccan and Ethiopian women cost more. The cheapest, he
reveals, are Ugandan girls. They go for as low as 30DH. The ladies have pimps
who link them to wealthy Arabs with taste for African women. For their trouble,
the pimps get a cut out of their earnings. Our guide says some of the
African women prefer to go through pimps who selectively hand them over to
their trusted clients. “These trusted clients are usually wealthy men who
prefer to keep that aspect of their life discreet; but they are the ones who
take very good care of our girls”, he says.
But Nigerian commercial
sex workers in Dubai have dealt a deadly blow to the reputation and image of
Nigeria, and more eerily to the value of Nigerian women who visit the emirate.
Our guide said some Nigerian women who are not in any way connected to
prostitution had been harassed by men who perceive every Nigerian woman as a
sex hawker. “The whole thing is embarrassing”, he said.
AT
RHAMI HOTEL
Rhami Hotel located in
the densely packed Deira area is a hotbed of fun. Alcohol is freely served
here. Women of easy virtue circulate from table to table in search of
‘clients’. Nigerian girls add to the number. The language here is English and
you could tell from the conversations amidst the deafening blasts of music that
Nigerians are in the majority here. As it is at Rhami Hotel, so it is at Garage
Hotel, another joint of African orientation.
A CITY OF
PARADOXES
How do these Nigerian
women beat security and escape the eagle eyes of immigration officials? Very simple.
In Dubai, there are travel agencies whose briefs extend beyond arranging flight
tickets and hotels; they also offer a special service called ‘visa change’.
Dubai visas range from two weeks to nine months. Visas running into months are
issued to students and persons of proven genuine business interest. These
Nigerian women get visa up to one month but as soon as it expires, they
approach the travel agency through a syndicate for ‘visa change’. This allows
them to relocate to Oman, Kish or any of the neighbouring cities adjoining the
UAE and return to Dubai to continue with their ‘business’ as soon as a new visa
is procured. The visa change scheme enables them to manoeuvre their way and
enjoy extended stay in Dubai.
Dubai,
a strict Islamic emirate is a mixed bag of the good, the bad and the ugly. It
is here you find bars and pubs that offer drink-all-you-like services. It is
here that some couples have been charged with having sex in taxis and in
inauspicious places. Though the laws are strictly enforced but these
Nigerian women with help from the Dubai sex syndicates have cleverly navigated
their way to beat the law and its enforcers. But their dirty trade has sullied
the reputation of the country. Whereas they claim they were driven by economic
hardship, they are yet other women in the country who would rather stay poor
and hungry than sell their body for cheap. It is their choice to prostitute but
it is a wrong choice at very grave risk. This is not to say that every
Nigerian woman who travels to Dubai for business is a sex worker. It is
unfortunate the bad eggs are becoming more than the good ones.
Ray Umukoro, Editor-at-Large
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