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

In the Gulf, women employed as domestic workers are sold

online

through apps approved and provided by Google and Apple. It has been called an

online

slave

market

. Our BBC News Arab team posed as a husband and wife looking to buy a domestic worker in Kuwait. Ready, yes. The app called For Sale is used to buy and sell domestic workers along with cars and televisions. The BBC team spoke to 57 For Sale users who were selling their domestic workers online. Most women were unaware that they were being advertised online and then solved the application. The 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 used to sell women online. The BBC found hundreds of domestic workers for

sale

on the Saudi app and on 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 a police officer, urged our team to break the law by confiscating the domestic workers' passports and denying them any time off. Okay, a new ad appears for

sale

of an African domestic worker for 3,800. Hey, undercover team, prepare to meet the seller, first exit.

Nothing could prepare them for what happens next. Okay, we're surprised to find this woman offering to sell us a child. The young woman appears withdrawn and confused by employing a domestic worker under the age of 21.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 showed 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 if it were chattel, as if it were property. What they are doing is illegal, not only does it violate Kuwaiti national law, but it is also a violation of international human rights law and labor standards.

So, Google Apple, Facebook or any other company hosting apps like these, they need to be held accountable. What they are doing is promoting an online slave

market

. Google Apple and Facebook claim to ban modern slavery and human trafficking on their platforms, but we found thousands. of domestic workers 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 employment system used throughout the gulf known as cafella, where a worker's visa Domestic worker is linked to his or her employer or sponsor under this system, the domestic worker cannot quit his or her job or leave the country without the permission of his or 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 type of system is that the employer thinks that he already owns the worker, but that's not the case, it shouldn't be that way. situation is just the service but not the whole person together we are stronger anna bunda is the founder of sandigan an ngo that campaigns for the well-being and rights of domestic workers in kuwait following anne's advice we show you our video of the underage girl The Kuwaiti authorities, to see if ten days later they managed to find the girl we call fatu, who had been sold to another employer, take her to the government-run shelter for domestic workers, where she is interviewed by a government official she admits. being a minor and deported to guinea fatu she is one of hundreds of underage girls trafficked each year from guinea, west africa.

Now living with a foster family in Qanakuri, the capital city, he worked for three different households during his nine months in Kuwait, but was only paid two months' salary and did not want to show his face on camera, but wants his story be heard again at school and rebuild their lives in Guinea, but there are still thousands of domestic workers who are bought and sold on Instagram haraj and other applications. available on google play and the apple app store the policeman and the women who tried to sell us to fatu did not provide us with a statement and no legal action has been taken against them the kuwaiti government declined to comment further on the case of fatu after our investigation by sale the app that was used to sell fatu removed its domestic workers section and said the allegations are appalling and the ones that completely condemn facebook who owns 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 they are working with app developers to better prevent illegal activity like this on their platforms. you