Women looking for work as domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates report being kept in squalid accommodation and abused while also claiming that the agencies that are supposed to hire them are selling them through apps and social media platforms to domestic employers.

As the Guardian reports through long-term interviews with 14 women from East Africa and the Philippines who told their stories, it revealed that these women were held captive, abused and denied food.

These women are exploited in a manner reminiscent of slavery, with employers charging less for the services of black domestic workers and telling them they don’t even have to provide them with proper bedrooms.

The women’s testimony shows the bleak situation for their lives as they wait for an employer to take them on.

“We slept 8-9 women together on the floor”

“The moment we landed we got our passports. Then we went to a house. Eight or nine of us slept in one small room. The use of mobile phones was not allowed,” says Margarita, a Filipina who was hired by an agency in the Emirate of Ajman, adding, “We slept on the floor until someone hired us.”

The women who moved to the United Arab Emirates expected to start work immediately in a house, but were locked in their agency’s accommodation for several months without receiving any money from anywhere.

“After they beat me, they took my cell phone”

Specifically, 28-year-old Angelica Pine was detained for four months by a service in 2019. She claims she was violently assaulted by a female member of staff. “He’s in a bad mood. She kicked me, threw me into her room, pulled my hair, slapped me on my face and took my personal things like my mobile phone,” she says.

Some have returned to their home countries after receiving repatriation assistance from their embassies, and are now able to speak to the press. However, several told the Guardian that they personally know other women who have been held illegally in shelters.

They work 18 hours a day for $327

Mary, 34, from Kenya, says she wants to leave her employer. She is exhausted as she works more than 18 hours every day, without days off, for a salary equivalent to $327 a month. She claims her employers installed cameras in her bedroom. “I’m still afraid of my agency and that’s why I can’t talk,” says Mary, who is not her real name.

The Guardian’s extensive reporting has identified dozens of ads for domestic helpers on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

All these ads were posted by recruitment agencies that were licensed by the UAE government and are supposed to be certified as companies that protect the rights of employers and domestic workers.

“The staff force you to wear a hijab and then videotape you,” says Nia, 27, from Kenya. “If someone likes your profile, they come to the office and do a live interview. You have no other choice, since you need the job.”

According to the Guardian the website ‘Maids.cc’, a licensed service for domestic workers, has an app where customers can choose, order and pay for a maid without even meeting her first.

The working and living conditions provided to maids are also determined by… race. The website states that Filipina women need a bedroom of their own to sleep in, while African women do not.

Another agency, Leadership Tadbeer, in Abu Dhabi, advertises maids on TikTok and Instagram. On Instagram, the women advertised are from Indonesia, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

Their services are sold between AED 1,100 and AED 1,400 per month.

“The practice of advertising domestic workers based on nationality with their personal information has long been a practice in the UAE,” says Rothna Begum, of Human Rights Watch. “This shows how little the authorities are doing to protect the rights of domestic workers.”

What a representative of the UAE government says

However, a representative of the UAE government told the Guardian that the country maintains zero tolerance for any kind of abuse.

“The UAE maintains a zero tolerance policy towards workplace abuse. UAE law also prohibits any form of abuse of workers undertaking workshops on their rights and ways to report abuse. We conduct comprehensive investigations whenever individuals and/or entities act in a manner that contravenes UAE law. Those found guilty are held liable under UAE law and legislation.”

“UAE labor law stipulates that all workers must have paid leave, rest days, medical insurance, accommodation, meals, possession of their personal identity cards and access to free legal aid. The UAE continues to take active and decisive steps to implement laws, regulations and monitoring measures to improve the working conditions of its workforce and address any gaps.”