Maids for Sale: Silicon Valley’s Online Slave Market - BBC News

in the gulf women employed as domestic workers are sold

online

through approved apps provided by google and apple its called the

online

slave

market

our arab bbc

news

team posed as a husband and a wife looking to buy a domestic worker in kuwait ok yes an app called for

sale

is used to buy and sell domestic workers along with cars and tvs. the bbc team spoke to 57 for

sale

users who were selling their domestic workers online to thousands of women, most of the women were unaware they were advertising online and then solved the app. users were violating national and international laws on modern

slave

ry, human trafficking, and forced labor by selling these women, they were also denying domestic workers their basic human rights, okay, it's not the only app that is used to sell women online the BBC found hundreds of domestic workers selling on the saudi app and instagram owned by facebook the undercover team arranged a meeting with some of the sellers in person one of them who told us he was police, urged our team to break the law by confiscating the domestic workers passport and denying them any free time Ok there is a new ad for sale of an African domestic worker for 3800 hey the undercover team get ready to meet the seller .

First exit. Nothing could prepare them for what will happen next. the young woman appears withdrawn and confused about employing a domestic worker under the age of 21 this woman is breaking Kuwaiti law and could face up to six months in prison we show our images to amie labula the un special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery this is the quintessential example of modern slavery here we see a child being sold and traded as chattel as property what they are doing is illegal it is not only a violation of Kuwaiti national law it is a violation of international law of human rights and labor standards Google Apple, Facebook or any other company host applications like these.

They must be accountable. What they are doing is promoting an online slave

market

. Google Apple and Facebook claim they ban modern slavery and human trafficking on their platforms, but we found thousands. of domestic workers being sold illegally through hashtags used on Instagram and other apps provided by Google and Apple, the online slave market would not be possible without the gulf-wide employment system known as cafella, where the visa of a domestic worker is tied to her employer or sponsor under this system the domestic worker cannot quit her job or leave the country without the permission of her sponsor kuwait has some of the strictest laws to prevent sponsors from abusing this system but apps like for sale haraj and instagram allow employees to sell the sponsorship of these workers to other employers for profit creating an unregulated black market that leaves women more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation that's the problem with that kind of system is that the employer thinks they already own the worker but they don't, it shouldn't be the situation is just the service but not the whole person together we are stronger anna bunda is the founder of sandigan an ngo who campaigns for the welfare and rights of domestic workers in kuwait following anne's advice we showed our video of the underage girl to the Kuwaiti authorities to see if abroad ten days later they managed to find the girl we call fatu , having been sold to another employer, is taken to the government-run shelter for domestic workers, where she is interviewed by a government official whom she admits. as a minor and deported to guinea fatu is one of the hundreds of underage girls trafficked every year from guinea west africa now living with a foster family in qanakuri the capital city worked for three different homes in her nine months in kuwait but he was only paid two months salary he did not want to show his face on camera but he wants his story to be heard again at school and rebuilding his life in guinea but there are still thousands of domestic workers being bought and sold on instagram haraj and other apps available on google play and the apple app store the policeman and women who tried to sell us fatu did not provide us with a statement and no legal action has been taken against them the kuwaiti government refused to comment further on fatu's case after our investigation for sale the app that was used to sell fatu removed its domestic workers section and said that the accusations are terrible and those for sale completely condemn facebook, owner of instagram, told us that we do not allow content or behavior on instagram that may lead to human exploitation haraj the commodity app used in saudi arabia did not provide us with a statement, both google and apple told the bbc that this type of behavior has no place in their app stores and that are working with app developers to better prevent illegal activities like this on their platforms you