Media reports confirmed that many Nigerian women who work as maids in Oman and the United Arab Emirates have been subjected to rape, torture, and poor pay by their employers.
Two young Nigerian women shared their experiences in other to help other women not to fall into this modern-day slavery.
25-year-old Damilola Falodun traveled to Oman in 2016 and spend one year and one month of torture in the country, as she told BBC Yoruba her horrific story.
She wanted to travel to Canada but was detoured to Oman by a travel agency. The travel agent told her to opt for Oman as Canada was hard to process due to some problems and Oman was easy.
In Oman, Falodun said there was a day her boss barged into her room while she was ironing and pushed her to the bed and harassed her sexually. Thenceforth, whenever she is not working, she stand by the gate outside just to avoid her boss harassing her.
She revealed further that she couldn’t disclose this to anyone because she didn’t have access to a phone but fortunately she later got a phone and called one ‘Alhaja’ to explain what was happening to her but to her surprise, Alhaja told her to allow her boss have his way with her.
Foladun was able to save some money to buy herself a plane ticket back to Nigeria and says she will continue to inform people that modern-day slavery exists.
How Nigerian Women Are Lured into Sex Slaves
Another lady, Oyinlola Solanke (26),a single mom of two was introduced to a job in Dubai as a maid and was promised 150,000 Naira monthly. On getting to Oman, they paid her 70 Rials and told her they will only increase her salary to 100 Rials after she has worked for two years. According to Solanke, she said it is always an issue to get her monthly salary from her boss.
There was a day Solanke approached for her salary but he angrily pushed her away and she hit her face on the edge of a table. The boss pushed her because she refused to sleep with him.,
She said there was a day her boss called her and immediately she got to him, he placed his hands on her breast. This got her very scared, she further revealed that he kept on harassing her when his wife is not in sight on many occasions.
Solanke has promised herself to continue to share her story in other for women not to fall into this trap.
