Send them home - sex trafficking to Dubai, UAE
Donation protected
URGENT - Women trafficked to Dubai for the sex trade
NOTE: WE WILL AND CAN NOT ACCEPT DONATIONS FROM WITHIN THE UAE OR ANY RESIDENT OF THE UAE.
In the first week of January 2020 we rescued and repatriated a woman trafficked for sex from Nigeria to Dubai. Please help us secure the immediate release of the remaining girls and build a case for NAPTIP/Interpol.
Updated February 10, 2020. The original appeal appears at the bottom of this update to ensure full transparency.
On New Year’s day in Dubai, I was propositioned for sex by a 25-year Nigerian woman I will call Amy. After declining we chatted and I discovered that she had been trafficked from Nigeria in August 2019 on the promise of a lucrative sales job. Orphaned at 18yrs after her parents were both killed in a car crash, Amy looked after her younger brother, selling things she made in the local market to feed them. Not hard to see why she had jumped at the opportunity to improve their situation.
Amy was penniless, thin, tired and despondently resigned to her situation, dressed in a cheap clinging dress and pink slippers. Her captor, a Nigerian woman and her son, set her a goal of earning £10,000 after which she would be free to leave. It’s unlikely she would be able to.
We exchanged numbers and I photographed her documents and injuries whilst I considered what to do. In the meantime, Amy managed to get me addresses, telephone numbers and an image of her boss in order to build a case.
That evening as we boarded our flight home she video called me to show me the beating she had just sustained for poor earnings. Less visibly her bosses son had rubbed chilli powder into her vagina as punishment for not earning enough. Upon landing in London we hatched a plan for her escape and after a tense 4 days, she boarded a flight to Nigeria and was reunited with her Aunie in Lagos on the 7th January.
The story doesn’t end there, Amy left behind 5 girls and now we discover a further 16 in a separate apartment.
We have assisted a second girl, Bindy, to return to Nigeria and she is proactively assisting NAPTIP, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons in Benin City. As a result, NAPTIP has three people in custody including the madame who was holding her in Dubai and administering the punishments to the girls.
We have developed a strong relationship with the case officer at NAPTIP and following consultation with him, we are still planning to return to Dubai to rescue and repatriate as many girls as we can find from the group.
The news team at BBC South are covering this story and as a consequence, we have revised our funding target up to enable us to repatriate as more trafficked women to Nigeria. The cost breakdown is as follows but this is only an outline and will depend on the situation on the ground.
Worst case emergency exit
10 x short notice flights - £5,000
3 nights x 5 rooms, B&B, taxes - £1,000
Local handler - £400
10 x Smartphones to enable wifi coms in Nigeria - £500
Taxis, food & sundries (Uber as confined to the hotel) - £900
Clothing & travel bags - £1,000
5 x allowance for travel/food in Nigeria to home by bus - £600
Our ideal would be to secure all the remaining girls (estimated 16 plus 3) but some will be bound by Juju (see Update 3 below) and some may want to stay. Any surplus will be donated to support the education program of Idia Renaissance, an NGO working in Edo State to educate women of the dangers of trafficking and to support returning victims.
We are grateful for the generous support of Vodafone UK for waiving mobile telephone charges run up calling the UAE.
This is the original text posted Jan 11, 2020.
On New Year’s day in Dubai, I was propositioned for sex by a 25-year Nigerian woman I will call Amy. After declining we chatted and I discovered that she had been trafficked from Nigeria in August 2019 on the promise of a lucrative sales job. Orphaned at 18yrs after her parents were both killed in a car crash, Amy looked after her younger brother, selling things she made in the local market to feed them. Not hard to see why she had jumped at the opportunity to improve their situation.
Amy was penniless, thin, tired and despondently resigned to her situation, dressed in a cheap clinging dress and pink slippers. Her captor, a Nigerian woman and her son, set her a goal of earning £10,000 after which she would be free to leave. It’s unlikely she would be able to.
We exchanged numbers and I photographed her documents and injuries whilst I considered what to do. In the meantime, Amy managed to get me addresses, telephone numbers and an image of her boss in order to build a case.
That evening as we boarded our flight home she video called me to show me the beating she had just sustained for poor earnings. Less visibly her bosses son had rubbed chilli powder into her vagina as punishment for not earning enough. Upon landing in London we hatched a plan for her escape and after a tense 4 days, she boarded a flight to Nigeria and was reunited with her Aunie in Lagos on the 7th January.
The story doesn’t end there, Amy left behind 5 girls and her boss is currently in Nigeria recruiting more. I am in touch with one of the other girls we will call Bindy, who yesterday also received a beating and the chilli powder treatment for the umpteenth time.
After consulting with specialists in trafficking, we are advised that this is an urgent safeguarding situation, that is to say the safety of the victims is more important than the prosecution of the perpetrators. I want to go back to Dubai and secure the release of all 5 girls before handing a file to the National Crime Agency who will prepare a case for the local office of Interpol.
Please help me to get these 5 women to a hotel and onto a flight home with enough money to support them for a month. These enslaved and abused women are our mothers, wives and sisters - please help us to get them home to their families.
We are dreaming big - if we raise anything over the £5k we need immediately we will either use the surplus to rescue other victims from Dubai or donate it to Hope for Justice. Please give as much as you can and now!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Feel free to contact us using the link below to discuss any aspect of our campaign.
Angus & Tanya
How your money will be spent
All money will be received into Angus's bank account in the UK as stakeholder for the campaign. All UK costs and disbursements will be met by Angus & Tanya personally. Any spend will be reported on this page as and when it occurs.
The rescue and repatriation of Amy cost close to £2,000 but this was an emergency situation and we learned alot on the way.
Best case of a planned exit
5 x flights to Lagos - £1,725
Local handler - £100
Taxis & food - £120
Clothing and bags - £300
5 x allowance for travel/food in Nigeria to home by bus - £250
Total cost: £2,495. Any surplus will be used to follow any new leads on other girls arising or in the event of none, donated to Hope for Justice , a global non-profit organisation which aims to end human trafficking and modern slavery.
Worst case emergency exit
5 x short notice flights - £3,700
3 nights x 2 rooms, B&B, taxes - £210
Local handler - £200
Taxis & food (Uber as confined to the hotel) - £340
Clothing and bags - £300
5 x allowance for travel/food in Nigeria to home by bus - £250
Total cost: £5,000. Any surplus will be used to follow any new leads on other girls arising or in the event of none, donated to Hope for Justice.
Who we are
We are Angus & Tanya, married and living in the south-east of the UK. Owing to the nature of this campaign we would prefer not to give further information but feel free to email us for further information.
NOTE: WE WILL AND CAN NOT ACCEPT DONATIONS FROM WITHIN THE UAE OR ANY RESIDENT OF THE UAE.
In the first week of January 2020 we rescued and repatriated a woman trafficked for sex from Nigeria to Dubai. Please help us secure the immediate release of the remaining girls and build a case for NAPTIP/Interpol.
Updated February 10, 2020. The original appeal appears at the bottom of this update to ensure full transparency.
On New Year’s day in Dubai, I was propositioned for sex by a 25-year Nigerian woman I will call Amy. After declining we chatted and I discovered that she had been trafficked from Nigeria in August 2019 on the promise of a lucrative sales job. Orphaned at 18yrs after her parents were both killed in a car crash, Amy looked after her younger brother, selling things she made in the local market to feed them. Not hard to see why she had jumped at the opportunity to improve their situation.
Amy was penniless, thin, tired and despondently resigned to her situation, dressed in a cheap clinging dress and pink slippers. Her captor, a Nigerian woman and her son, set her a goal of earning £10,000 after which she would be free to leave. It’s unlikely she would be able to.
We exchanged numbers and I photographed her documents and injuries whilst I considered what to do. In the meantime, Amy managed to get me addresses, telephone numbers and an image of her boss in order to build a case.
That evening as we boarded our flight home she video called me to show me the beating she had just sustained for poor earnings. Less visibly her bosses son had rubbed chilli powder into her vagina as punishment for not earning enough. Upon landing in London we hatched a plan for her escape and after a tense 4 days, she boarded a flight to Nigeria and was reunited with her Aunie in Lagos on the 7th January.
The story doesn’t end there, Amy left behind 5 girls and now we discover a further 16 in a separate apartment.
We have assisted a second girl, Bindy, to return to Nigeria and she is proactively assisting NAPTIP, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons in Benin City. As a result, NAPTIP has three people in custody including the madame who was holding her in Dubai and administering the punishments to the girls.
We have developed a strong relationship with the case officer at NAPTIP and following consultation with him, we are still planning to return to Dubai to rescue and repatriate as many girls as we can find from the group.
The news team at BBC South are covering this story and as a consequence, we have revised our funding target up to enable us to repatriate as more trafficked women to Nigeria. The cost breakdown is as follows but this is only an outline and will depend on the situation on the ground.
Worst case emergency exit
10 x short notice flights - £5,000
3 nights x 5 rooms, B&B, taxes - £1,000
Local handler - £400
10 x Smartphones to enable wifi coms in Nigeria - £500
Taxis, food & sundries (Uber as confined to the hotel) - £900
Clothing & travel bags - £1,000
5 x allowance for travel/food in Nigeria to home by bus - £600
Our ideal would be to secure all the remaining girls (estimated 16 plus 3) but some will be bound by Juju (see Update 3 below) and some may want to stay. Any surplus will be donated to support the education program of Idia Renaissance, an NGO working in Edo State to educate women of the dangers of trafficking and to support returning victims.
We are grateful for the generous support of Vodafone UK for waiving mobile telephone charges run up calling the UAE.
This is the original text posted Jan 11, 2020.
On New Year’s day in Dubai, I was propositioned for sex by a 25-year Nigerian woman I will call Amy. After declining we chatted and I discovered that she had been trafficked from Nigeria in August 2019 on the promise of a lucrative sales job. Orphaned at 18yrs after her parents were both killed in a car crash, Amy looked after her younger brother, selling things she made in the local market to feed them. Not hard to see why she had jumped at the opportunity to improve their situation.
Amy was penniless, thin, tired and despondently resigned to her situation, dressed in a cheap clinging dress and pink slippers. Her captor, a Nigerian woman and her son, set her a goal of earning £10,000 after which she would be free to leave. It’s unlikely she would be able to.
We exchanged numbers and I photographed her documents and injuries whilst I considered what to do. In the meantime, Amy managed to get me addresses, telephone numbers and an image of her boss in order to build a case.
That evening as we boarded our flight home she video called me to show me the beating she had just sustained for poor earnings. Less visibly her bosses son had rubbed chilli powder into her vagina as punishment for not earning enough. Upon landing in London we hatched a plan for her escape and after a tense 4 days, she boarded a flight to Nigeria and was reunited with her Aunie in Lagos on the 7th January.
The story doesn’t end there, Amy left behind 5 girls and her boss is currently in Nigeria recruiting more. I am in touch with one of the other girls we will call Bindy, who yesterday also received a beating and the chilli powder treatment for the umpteenth time.
After consulting with specialists in trafficking, we are advised that this is an urgent safeguarding situation, that is to say the safety of the victims is more important than the prosecution of the perpetrators. I want to go back to Dubai and secure the release of all 5 girls before handing a file to the National Crime Agency who will prepare a case for the local office of Interpol.
Please help me to get these 5 women to a hotel and onto a flight home with enough money to support them for a month. These enslaved and abused women are our mothers, wives and sisters - please help us to get them home to their families.
We are dreaming big - if we raise anything over the £5k we need immediately we will either use the surplus to rescue other victims from Dubai or donate it to Hope for Justice. Please give as much as you can and now!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Feel free to contact us using the link below to discuss any aspect of our campaign.
Angus & Tanya
How your money will be spent
All money will be received into Angus's bank account in the UK as stakeholder for the campaign. All UK costs and disbursements will be met by Angus & Tanya personally. Any spend will be reported on this page as and when it occurs.
The rescue and repatriation of Amy cost close to £2,000 but this was an emergency situation and we learned alot on the way.
Best case of a planned exit
5 x flights to Lagos - £1,725
Local handler - £100
Taxis & food - £120
Clothing and bags - £300
5 x allowance for travel/food in Nigeria to home by bus - £250
Total cost: £2,495. Any surplus will be used to follow any new leads on other girls arising or in the event of none, donated to Hope for Justice , a global non-profit organisation which aims to end human trafficking and modern slavery.
Worst case emergency exit
5 x short notice flights - £3,700
3 nights x 2 rooms, B&B, taxes - £210
Local handler - £200
Taxis & food (Uber as confined to the hotel) - £340
Clothing and bags - £300
5 x allowance for travel/food in Nigeria to home by bus - £250
Total cost: £5,000. Any surplus will be used to follow any new leads on other girls arising or in the event of none, donated to Hope for Justice.
Who we are
We are Angus & Tanya, married and living in the south-east of the UK. Owing to the nature of this campaign we would prefer not to give further information but feel free to email us for further information.
Organizer
Angus Thomas
Organizer
