Online ‘slave markets’ use tech giants to sell domestic staff in Kuwait

Tech giants including Instagram and Google ‘are hosting an online slave markets where domestic workers are being bought and sold for less than £3,000 through apps’

  • Children as young as 16 are being trafficked into Kuwait and sold as maids
  • The maids are traded on online marketplaces by unscrupulous dealers 
  • Ordinary couples also trade their domestic staff online sometimes for a profit 
  • Purchasers are advised to keep the maid’s passport and confiscate her phone  

Technology giants Google, Apple and Facebook have been accused of facilitating an online slavery market. 

An undercover investigation by BBC News Arabic found smartphone apps in Kuwait where potential buyers can scroll through the details of thousands of women available for domestic service. 

The women can be ‘bought’ for as little as £3,000. 

A BBC undercover investigation found an online market where people in Kuwait could buy domestic servants for as little as £3,000. The team were advised to keep their maid’s passport and take away her phone while denying her any time off

UN special repporteur on modern slavery Urmila Bhoola said the tech companies should be held accountable as their services are facilitating this trade

UN special repporteur on modern slavery Urmila Bhoola said the tech companies should be held accountable as their services are facilitating this trade 

UN special rapporteur on modern slavery Urmila Bhoola told the BBC: ‘What they are doing is promoting an online slave market.

‘If Google, Apple, Facebook or any other companies are hosting apps like these, they have to be held accountable.’ 

The investigation found that one market operates on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. It is reported that sales are conducted through private messages. 

The tech giants told the BBC they are working with app developers to stop the illegal activity. 

They also suggest selling people online is against their terms and conditions. 

However, the BBC sent a couple under cover claiming they were newly arrived in Kuwait and were seeking domestic servants. 

They visited one site where women were filtered by race – with some people worth more than others.  

One add claimed an African worker was ‘clean and smiley’, while a second warned the Nepalese person for sale ‘dares to ask for a day off’. 

Some of the adverts are from people looking to sell their own domestic staff. 

Even one police officer was trying to sell his domestic worker who he described as ‘very nice’ and with a ‘smiley face’ and never complains. 

The officer claimed it was possible to buy a maid and sell her on for a profit. 

Although he warned that you should keep your maid’s passport. 

The BBC team even received the opportunity to buy a 16-year-old girl who had been trafficked in from Guinea, West Africa. 

The owner said the girl, was not allowed any time off and did not have any access to her passport or mobile phone.  

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk