MAIDS FOR SALE: SILICON VALLEY’S
ONLINE SLAVE MARKET
Coloured subs
Tagging & astons
|
No. |
Picture |
Audio |
|
|
|
1 - PRE-TITLE |
|
1 |
Undercover calls in hotel |
F: I’m calling about the maid you
advertised on the internet. Seller: Trust me she’s very nice.
You can wake her up at 5 am, she won’t complain. F: Can we see her? |
|
2 |
Undercover meeting |
F: You ask the questions. Seller: Here she is. In the Gulf, women, employed as domestic workers, are being sold
online, via apps provided by Google and Apple. Policeman: I have plenty of calls on WhatsApp. If you want her, give me a
deposit. |
|
3 |
Hotel |
It’s been called an online slave market. B: It’s horrible having their pictures and the words ‘4sale’
over it. BBC News Arabic goes undercover in Kuwait to expose this shocking
and disturbing online trade. Woman: Do you have another one?
Man: Yes. Woman: Let me see. [video upsync] May: We need to get rid of this idea that just because I
paid for someone’s services, I own them. |
|
4 |
Yannaty meeting Ann watching video |
She’s
got a pleasant face, she’s kind. Ann: This is child labour, child
trafficking, it’s sad and disgusting. |
|
5 |
Undercover meeting |
It’s an unregulated black market depriving women and children of
their basic human rights, leaving them at risk of exploitation and abuse. Esther: When I stay with my
madam I sleep me and the cows, you know cows? All made possible by the Silicon Valley tech giants. Urmila: What they are doing is
illegal. If Google, Apple, Facebook or any other company is promoting apps
like these, hosting apps like these they are promoting an online slave
market. |
|
6 |
|
TITLE: SILICON VALLEY’S ONLINE SLAVE MARKET |
|
|
|
2 - INTRODUCTION |
|
7 |
Kuwait GVs LOCATION TAG: KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT “Sawalif, al- Shahed
TV, October 2017” Caption: Source: Youtube July 2018 |
In Kuwait, 90% of households employ a domestic worker - that’s
one for every two Kuwaiti citizens. The government of
Kuwait passed a new law in 2015, giving domestic workers more rights. Ann: Together we are stronger. Long
live all of us. And imposing
stricter regulations on this multi-billion dollar industry.
But it’s generated a
lot of controversy. TV: Since they changed the law and made
it so they have to have a mobile, the world was ruined. Guest: True. Sondos: How can you have a servant in the house who keeps their own
passport? The worst thing is that she gets a day off every week, what’s next?
These new laws have pushed many to turn to a booming new
industry, where domestic workers are bought and sold online. All you need is a Google or Apple smartphone. |
|
8 |
Ann driving at night NAME TAG: MARY ANN ABUNDA, SANDIGAN
KUWAIT |
Ann: We have 700,000 domestic
workers in Kuwait. They are in all houses but you cannot see them. You don't
know them. You cannot recognise them. You can’t even call them. Ann Abunda is the founder of Sandigan. An organisation
that fights for the welfare and rights of domestic workers in Kuwait. Ann: If
it's a life and death situation, then we will do whatever it takes to save
the worker. Ann: We
deal with a lot of abuse cases, like this one. She was being sold online, she
was being pictured by her employer without knowing that her employer will
post it online. When I see some postings like this we immediately comment,
just tell them that this is illegal. They don’t realise that this is human
trafficking. Nobody owns us. |
|
|
|
3 -
POLICEMAN/BENIN MAID |
|
9 |
GFX |
Our BBC team pose as a husband
and wife looking to buy a domestic worker. F: Ready? B: Yes. For their safety we cannot reveal
their identities. We download an app called 4Sale,
the most popular commodity app in Kuwait, available on the Apple App Store
and Google Play. F: We can both talk right? B: Yes, you tell him you’re
here with your wife. Amongst cars, lawnmowers, and
TVs, there’s a dedicated section where you can buy a domestic worker. F: Look at this ad. F: [reading out ad] For
release, African maid, [ringing] Man: Hello F: Hello F: I’m calling you regarding
the maid Man: Yes go ahead. F: My wife and I are new to
Kuwait so we’re trying to find a good maid. Man: Trust me she’s very nice,
she laughs and has a smiley face. Even if you keep her up till 5am she won’t
complain. F: Why are you giving her up? Man: I bought a new maid. F: Is it possible for us to see
her? Man: No problem. |
|
10 |
Undercover
team preparing undercover cameras |
Our undercover team get ready
to meet the seller F: It’s working. |
|
11 |
Driving
to undercover meeting |
F: What’s the
house number? B: Jess: I’ll stay in the car B: Which floor? F: She’s African right? |
|
12 |
Entering
house of “seller” |
F: How are you? F: Hello. S: Hello. F: How are you? S: I’m good. Seller: This is the maid,
she’ll come out now. F: Look, I’m going to leave
this whole thing up to my wife, it’s all for her anyway. Seller: I’m not going to tell
you whether she’s good or bad, a B: What’s her name? Seller: Sara, this is what we
call her, I don't know what her real name is. So if you want to buy her, buy
her. B: So holidays are a definite
no no? Seller: No. Where would she go?
It’s impossible, it’s never happened. No telephone, or going outside. What if,
God forbid, tomorrow, she goes out and sleeps with someone. Seller: Sara! Come here. B: Does she speak Arabic? Seller: A bit. [Sara enters] B: Hello. F: How are you? Seller: Sit down Seller: Do you smoke? F: Yes I smoke. Our female undercover reporter
stays inside with the domestic worker. |
|
13 |
Conversation
between F & seller on balcony |
F: What do you do? Seller: I’m a policeman. I tell
you 4Sale is dirty, be careful with it. You will find someone buying a maid for 600 KD ($2,000), and selling her on
for 1,000 KD ($3,300). For what? I mean we’re all human
beings. You’re selling a maid. She’s human, why are you bargaining? Seller: The passport, don’t
give it to her. You’re her sponsor. Why would you give her her passport? F: I don’t know. I find it
strange to be honest Seller: You take the passport,
hide it in the safe. F: OK. Seller: Trust me she cleans,
she does everything. F: So, my dear? |
|
14 |
F &
man come back into living room |
Man: If you want her, you have
to give me a deposit. Or if you want to keep looking around, feel free, I
have plenty of calls on WhatsApp. B: Ok, Let’s go. F: Nice to meet you. S: Should I get my bag? Man: For God’s sake, not now.
She wants to leave right away. F: Thank you very much. B: Goodbye. Nice to meet you. [pause] This policeman was knowingly
breaking the law. He was trying to sell
us his domestic worker, he had confiscated her passport and didn't give
her a day off. All of which is illegal in Kuwait. |
|
|
|
4 -
UNDERCOVER MONTAGE |
|
15 |
Undercover montage |
Over the course of a week, our undercover team spoke to 57 users
of 4Sale. F: OK. It has an inbuilt feature that
lets you filter by race, violating Kuwaiti law and international law. F: What shall we choose,
Fillipino, Indian, Indonesian? B: Sri-Lankan, African. The women cost between $2,500 and
$5000 (or £2,000 and
£4,000) B: It’s horrible having their pictures and the words ‘4Sale’
over it. |
|
16 |
Montage of undercover calls and
meetings |
B: Does she take holiday? C1: No, no, no. We Kuwaitis,
don’t let them to be honest, we’re criminals. C4: No, no, no, no, it’s not
allowed. Not a day, or a minute, or a second. F: What
does the law say? Man: The
law. We don’t follow the law. Under Kuwait’s domestic worker law it is illegal not to
give your domestic worker a day off per week. |
|
17 |
Montage of undercover calls and
meetings |
F: And does the passport stay
with us or with her? C4: I keep all my maids’
passports. Why would she keep it? So that she can go to the airport and
abandon me? It’s also illegal for the employer to keep hold of their
domestic worker’s passport. B: And what about the mobile
phone? C: No, no, forget about mobile
phones, these are uneducated people, know what I mean? F: So she doesn’t speak to her
family? C: You can give it to her once a
month. |
|
18 |
Montage of calls and undercover meetings |
But it’s not only happening in Kuwait, and 4Sale is not
the only app being used. In Saudi Arabia we found hundreds of women being sold on
Haraj, another popular commodity app. And on Facebook-owned Instagram we found hundreds more. B: I’m calling about the ad I saw on Instagram, the Filipino maid? Caller: She’s gone, my dear. Many sellers used racist and discriminatory language as
part of their sales pitch. Caller: Indian maids aren’t clean, they’re the dirtiest in the world,
unfortunately. And in most cases, the women had no knowledge they were
being advertised online, and then sold. F:
Is she aware that she will be moving to a different place? Caller:
I didn’t tell her F:
You didn’t tell her? Caller: No but it’s OK, she has no problem, she has
come here to work. |
|
|
|
5 - ANN RESTAURANT |
|
19 |
Ann enters Filipino restaurant |
Ann: Hi there. VO: Since 2010,
Ann’s organisation, Sandigan, has rescued thousands of women from abusive
households. [Looking at 4Sale] Ann: You know, so sad that they are
posting it together with this. You know, together with Ann: Some of the employers when they treat you as family, they will
not give you salary anymore. Ann: I was a domestic worker before. I experienced a lot with my employers,
I was 21. The moment I arrived in their house, I was starving, but they let
me work. I worked for them for a year and then they put me in jail. Yeah,
they put me in jail. VO: In Kuwait it’s
illegal for a domestic worker to run away from their employer. Jess: How did that happen? Ann: Because the son of my employer is harassing me before. I'm, like,
traumatised already daily, on a daily basis. From the time I wake up to the
time I sleep, I feel like I am traumatised. Ann was never charged with a crime. And since being
released from prison she’s dedicated her life to helping other vulnerable
domestic workers in Kuwait. That is
the problem with “Kafala” maybe. That is the problem with that kind of system, it’s that the employer is thinking that they own
already the worker. But it shouldn't be the situation. It's only the service
but not the totality of the person. |
|
|
|
6 - KAFALA EXPLAINER |
|
20 |
Kefala
explainer, animation |
Under the “Kafala” system, domestic workers are brought into the
country by agencies and then officially registered with the government. Potential employers pay the agencies a fee and become the
official sponsor of the domestic worker. Under the “Kafala” system, a domestic worker cannot change or
quit her job, nor leave the country without her sponsor’s permission. Apps like 4Sale, Haraj and Instagram enable employers to sell the
sponsorship of their domestic workers to other employers, for a profit. This bypasses the agencies and creates an unregulated black
market that leaves women more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. |
|
|
|
7- FATOU UNDERCOVER |
|
21 |
Morning, in hotel room, undercover team calling a 4Sale user Bettina |
B: This
is an ad from an hour ago. VO: A new ad appears on 4sale, an African domestic worker
for $3,800 [Upsync] [phone ringing] W: Hello. B: Hello. W: Yes dear. B: I’m calling you about the African
maid on 4Sale. W: Yes she’s been with us a month and a half she’s very good and
smiley. She never demands anything. She’s polite, she says, ‘Mama can I go to
the supermarket?’. And so we send the boy with her. He takes here there. She
pays for her own things. B: She doesn’t go
to the supermarket alone? W: No, no, no, the boy takes her and brings her back. I don’t let her
out alone, no, no, no. B: And how old is she? W: Maybe 20-years-old.
B: Oh she’s young,
OK. W: Yes. B: Would it be
possible for me and my husband to come and see her? W: Yes, you’re most
welcome. B: Thank you. |
|
22 |
Sunset, driving to undercover meeting, B looking at map on her phone |
VO: Our BBC
undercover team arrange to meet the seller. [Music] B: First exit. Nothing can prepare
them for what happens next. [Getting out of taxi, call to prayer] F: You ask the questions. B: Yes because I’m the one who wants to get to know her. |
|
23 |
Entering house of Yannaty’s employer [edits] |
[Maid opens the door] B: Hello. Woman: Hello. F: How are you? F: Good, and you? W: There she is. I swear
she is always good natured. W: Look, this is
Daddy and this is Mummy. Her name is [bleep]. W: She has an
Arabic name because she’s Muslim. F: Is she from
Ghana or where is she from? W: Oh I forget
there’s so many, Ghana, Guinea, something like that. B: From where? Y: I’m from Guinea. F: Guinea, OK. W: Everyone wants
the maid, but we want to find her an easy house. Look, this is Mummy and this
is Daddy. |
|
24 |
|
B: How old are you [bleep]? W: Shall I tell you
the truth? For my sake. She’s 16. The papers say one
thing, but over there they changed them so that she could work. And she’s an
orphan, no mother or father, nobody except her grandmother. VO: We are shocked to find this
woman offering to sell us a child. The young girl seems withdrawn and
confused. W: Speak to Mama. [French] B: I’m going to speak to you in French. B: How old are you? Y: 16 B: How old? 16? B: So she must have
been young when she came here to work, just 15? W: Yes, we were
told she was 22. But I asked her how old she was. I could see from the way
she moved, her joy was this childlike joy, so she gestured to me and told me
her age. W: When will you
take her, God willing? F: Yesterday we saw
a few, and today, this is the first one we’ve seen. Later, the madam and I
will sit and think about things. W: Good news, God
willing. It’s just we want her to move on quickly so we can get the other
maid. And you know her price? F: Yes, we talked
about the details. W: She’s got a
pleasant face, she’s kind, she won’t say ‘no’ to you. She helps you with
whatever you ask her to. |
|
25 |
Door opens and other maid walks in with coffee |
W: This is the
older one, she can withstand the work, but this one is a child. B: We won’t take
any more of your time. Let’s go F: Thank you. F: Goodbye. F: Poor girl. I felt she was on the verge of tears. B: She was really shy. I could barely hear her, she was really shy. |
|
26 |
Night driving |
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. She had also confiscated the girl’s passport, didn’t
allow her any time off, or to leave the house alone, all of which are
illegal. |
|
27 |
Urmila 2 ASTON: Urmila Bhoola, UN Special
Rapporteur, Contemporary Forms of Slavery |
Urmila:
This is the quintessential example of modern slavery. Here we see a child being sold
and traded like chattel, like a piece of property. VO: Urmila Bhoola is the UN special Rapporteur on
contemporary forms of slavery. We see
coercion and control being exercised by the employer over this very
vulnerable child. What they are doing is illegal.
It is not only in violation of national Kuwaiti law. It is a violation of
international human rights law and labour standards. |
|
28 |
Ann watching video of Yannaty on laptop in her office |
[video] We take our video of the young girl to Ann. Ann: She's 16-years-old, she shouldn't be here in Kuwait. This is child
labour, child trafficking. They're talking in Arabic and she doesn't
understand anything, even a single word of what they're talking about. And
they're talking about her, selling her. It’s sad and disgusting. Ann starts an investigation to see if she can contact the
16-year-old girl, who, to protect her identity, we will call ‘Fatou’. [Guinea embassy call] Ann: Hello, hello, hello
sir. She alerts the Guinean Embassy to see what they can do. Ann: She
is 16-years-old, she is minor. I am here in the migrant workers office. She
is in Kuwait right now and she’s working as a domestic worker. We believe
that she is a victim of human trafficking. And we don’t have her passport
sir. The embassy needs her full name in order to make
inquiries. Ann: Thank you, thank you very much. |
|
29 |
Undercover team being Whatsapped Yannaty’s passport |
Ann asks our BBC undercover team if we can try to
persuade the seller to give us Fatou’s passport details. Jess: OK, you need to ask now
for her passport to see if her papers are legitimate. B: How can I smoothly do that
without Jess: My husband wants to B: needs
her legal documents. B: [Arabic] My husband needs to
see her official documents or her passport. Is it possible to send them to
me? B: She sent the passport. The passport reveals her surname to be ‘Bongono,’ and her
place of birth Conakry, the capital city of Guinea. The passport says she was born
in 1995 which would mean she is 24-years-old, eight years older than her real
age. Now that Ann has Fatou’s passport she goes back to the Guinean
Embassy. She’s avoiding going directly to the Kuwaiti authorities
for fear that they could arrest Fatou for being in Kuwait illegally. |
|
|
|
8 - JACQUES SEARCH CONAKRY |
|
30 |
Intro guinea [Tetema
track] LOCATION TAG: CONAKRY, GUINEA Music/edit
Jacques in police uniform
walking into his house. Jacques looking at photo of
Yannaty NAME TAG: JACQUES BONGONO, Police officer |
We head to Guinea to see what the police can do to help
track down Fatou’s family. They don’t have any record of her going to Kuwait, but
they introduce us to Jacques, a policeman who has the same surname as Fatou. J: I am officer Bongono. I am a police officer. J:
We often hear stories, news from the Gulf countries. How these people behave
towards our African sisters, especially Guineans. Video: We want to get rid of her quickly so we can get the other
maid. And you know her price? Wife: She’s like merchandise. J: Right! [Susu] I want to get to the bottom of this. As a father it is not easy. I can’t even imagine that. This is
not a good situation. It is very dangerous! Jacques decides to take time off his official duties as a
policeman to look for Fatou’s family and see if they are aware of her
situation. |
|
31 |
Jacques’ Driving to baptism . |
J: I think the most important thing is to find her family. And
to do that, I will visit the Bongono families here. He starts the search among the Bongono community in
Conakry. We will go to the 36th arrondissement. Today there’s a baptism there so
we’ll get the message out to them. |
|
32 |
Crowds of women dancing for the
baptism Baby Jacques showing the family a
picture of Yannaty’s passport |
[Tetema track] J: Is there a baptism today? Man: Yes the baptism is today. J: Oh, it’s the baby! Here’s the thing. This is the girl here.
This is where they are negotiating her price so that she can be sold to
another master and start working for him. J: [French] So we need to identify her parents in order to bring
her back to her family. Man: Do you know this girl? Wife: You should go and check with
Babay, my sister-in-law. I don’t know whether her elder daughter
is here or not, but they might know. J: Where is that place? Wife: Another Bongono family. VO: Jacques continues his search amongst the Bongono
community in Conakry, but no one recognises her. |
|
|
|
9 - TRAFFICKER |
|
33 |
Driving through the night market
in downtown Conakry, kids skipping, women shopping, toddler dancing, guy
frying meat. |
Hundreds of underage girls are trafficked from Guinea each year. It’s a
lucrative industry for traffickers, and a last resort for families trying to
escape poverty. Fixer:
This is where they come, all those traffickers, this is their centre. The
girls are all here. We arrange to meet a trafficker to find out how a young
girl like Fatou could end up in Kuwait. |
|
34 |
Trafficker in car, night |
[Trafficker gets in car] T: Hello. He agrees to talk to us as long as we conceal his
identity. Jess: We have a picture of a Guinean
girl we met in Kuwait. Can you have a look to see if you
recognise her? T: No, I don’t know her. She’s very young, 16 to 17. Jess: If the girl is underage
and wants to go to the Gulf, how would you go about that? T: We are going to increase their age to 21 years, because if you
don't have 21 years or 22 years, they’re not going to accept you to the Gulf. J: It’s illegal to change the age right? T: Yes, we make a birth certificate for you, so you have 21 or 22
years. So take that birth certificate and go to the immigration, they make
passport for you. It’s not difficult, it’s money. When you pay money, you get a
passport. T: Some agents what they do they can
help you. Even if you have [no] money,
they will sex you, make love with you, before helping you go to Kuwait. T: Some girls, if
you give them $1 million dollars to go to Kuwait, they will say they will never go to Kuwait. |
|
35 |
Introducing the girls |
T: Esther! Hey Esther! As we’re filming, he spots two girls who have recently
returned from Kuwait. T:
Come! T: This is one of the girls they
put in prison in Kuwait. E: Hello, I’m Esther. Everyone: Hello E: [Arabic] Kuwait caused me a lot of problems. Jess: Too many problems? E: Yes too many. Not a few a lot! T: See this one too? B: Hello. E: [Arabic] There was nothing good there. Really nothing good. Kuwaiti
houses are very bad. B: [Arabic] Too much work over there, I didn’t sleep over there. Jess: [Arabic] Really, a lot of
work? B: [Arabic] A lot! No sleep, no food, nothing. We arrange to meet Nana, Esther and another girl, Biba away
from the watchful eyes of the traffickers. |
|
|
|
10 - RETURNEE GIRLS |
|
36 |
Day, Girls sitting by football pitch NAME
TAG: ESTHER NAME
TAG: BIBA NAME
TAG: NANA |
Esther: [English] When they want to wake you up they say ‘Haywan!’. Haywan
means animal. ‘Animal wake up wake up you need to do your job’. Biba: [Arabic] ‘You animal, you
piece of shit! Come on, wake up!’ Esther: It’s not easy. We are not lying, we are saying the truth,
because we have a big experience of that. We see, we live. Like Fatou, Biba, Nana and Esther were all underage when
they went to work in Kuwait. |
|
37 |
Biba Esther |
B: The mother hit me, do you
know what an iron is? I was washing the clothes and she beat me with the
iron, there. She hit me there, and it was hot. All these are the scars from
Kuwait. E: When I stay with my madam we
travel to Saudi for three months. I sleep where the cows are sleeping. I
sleep me and the cows, you know cows? We sleep together, animals. So I ask
them, ‘Why, why am I going to sleep here?’. They say, ‘We don’t have a place
for you, you need to sleep there.’ We stayed there for three months. When I come
to Kuwait I looked like an orphan, like a slave. So I ran out, because I’m
afraid for my life. I go outside, I go to police and handover myself. I stay
in prison three months. Life in prison is not easy. Kuwait is really a hell.
I can’t even talk much because the story is too long, because we suffer a
lot. Biba, Nana and Esther met in prison, after fleeing
abusive employers. |
|
38 |
Nana |
Nana: I spent three months in
prison. When I got back to Guinea, I was Off camera: Happy? Nana: Yes, very happy. I’m not a
slave anymore. I’m in my country like this. The three girls were bailed out by their families. But it’s estimated there are hundreds of domestic workers
languishing in prisons in Kuwait. |
|
39 |
Girls looking at photo of
Yannaty |
[French] Jess: I went to
Kuwait and I met a 16 year-old girl. I want to know if you have met her, she’s
Guinean. B: I might know
her. There’s plenty of Guineans there. Jess: I will show
you her picture. B: [showing photo
to Esther] You know her? E: No, no. B: Maybe she’s in
another prison. |
|
40 |
Girls looking at 4sale app |
We also show them the 4Sale app. B: This is how they used to take our pictures. E: Like this, with your uniform. E: They took my picture twice. But I don’t know if they were doing
this to sell people online. B: I would work somewhere for
one month and then the mother would sell me to another. N: I worked in more than five or
six houses. I would work, and then change house. VO: Their
experiences of being moved multiple times between employers, without any
choice, bear the signs of being bought and sold using the apps. B: It brings back memories. |
|
41 |
Girls walking on beach, posing, Biba, writing her name in the sand |
Biba: Kuwait is not good. Even
if you offered me millions I would never go. |
|
42a |
Urmila Bhoola 3 |
The majority of migrant domestic
workers, women workers, are extremely vulnerable to exploitation in modern
slavery. They are in a strange environment, generally unfamiliar with the
language, not allowed to communicate with their peers and live in isolation
often with the employer. Here we see an example of how digital technology is
used negatively to violate their fundamental human rights and to cause harm. |
|
42b |
Ts & Cs Google, Apple,
Facebook/Instagram |
Google, Apple and Facebook all claim that they prohibit
modern slavery and human trafficking on their platforms. 1 - Google’s Policy Against Modern Slavery, states that
they are comitted to eliminating modern slavery in all its forms. GFX: “committed to eliminating slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labor, human
trafficking, and child
labor (collectively, “modern slavery”) in our supply chains and
business operations.” 2 - Facebook’s own community standards say they do not
allow organisations or
individuals involved in human trafficking on their platforms. GFX: “do not allow organisations or individuals involved in human trafficking”. 3 - And Apple’s App Store review guidelines say that any
discriminatory content including references to religion, race, gender or
ethnic origin are banned. 1.1.1
Defamatory, discriminatory,
or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual
orientation, gender,
national/ethnic origin,
or other targeted groups, particularly if the app is likely to humiliate,
intimidate, or place a targeted individual or group in harm’s way. But we found thousands of domestic workers being
illegally sold using discriminatory language through hashtags used on Instagram and other apps hosted by Google and Apple
in violation of their own guidelines, and international law. |
|
|
|
11 - ANN SEARCH FOR YANNATY |
|
43 |
Kuwait GVs, cat ice-cream truck on corniche LOCATION TAG: KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT |
VO: Back in Kuwait, Ann is desperately trying to
contact Fatou. Despite sending the
Guinean Embassy her passport details, they haven’t taken any action. |
|
44 |
Calling old employer |
Ann: I will ask my colleague to
call the old employer to check on her whereabouts. VO: Ann’s colleague doesn’t want to appear on camera. [phone ringing] Woman: Yes? Colleague: Hello. Woman: Hello. Colleague: Good evening. How are you? Woman: Fine, thank you. Colleague: We have a question. Woman: Yes. There is a domestic worker who
was with you, her name is [bleep]. Woman: Who was with me? |
|
45 |
|
Colleague: She’s young. Her real age is 16 but on her passport
it says she is 24, this worker. Woman: That one is from Malawi
right? Colleague: No, from Guinea. Colleague: She is 16. But her passport says she is 24. Woman: Oh yes, yes, she was with me. Colleague: We want to know where she is now. Woman: I don't know anything about it. They came here
paid the money and we did the transfer. Colleague: Exactly. Colleague: Can you give us a phone number? Woman: Why would I keep the number of someone I traded
with? Colleague: [Laughing] Someone you traded with, maybe you
still have his number? I’d hope so. Because she’s a young girl and she can’t
be found. She is lost. Woman: I don’t know. Colleague: Ok, thank you. Woman: You're welcome goodbye. Colleague: She transferred her. Ann: She didn't give the number
of the new employer? Colleague: No, and she said she
thinks this guy also transferred her. Ann: Oh VO: Now that Fatou’s been sold on, there’s no way of
locating her other than going to the Kuwaiti government. It’s a move that Ann has been avoiding, as it often
results in the arrest of the domestic worker. |
|
|
|
11 -
JACQUES ROADTRIP TO GUECKEDOU |
|
46 |
Jacques leaving to start trip LOCATION: CONAKRY, GUINEA |
VO: In Guinea, Jacques decides
to expand his search for Fatou’s family to the remote forest regions of the
country, … where the Bongono family come from. J: Let’s go to the car. J: I know that what she is
going through over there is very difficult. It’s a 600 km drive from the
capital. |
|
47 |
Journey |
In life your home is better than anywhere else. If you
are at home you can do whatever you want. And you are free. Freedom has no
price. |
|
48 |
Driving getting dark music Moon |
Driver: It’s late to be on the road because there are too many
potholes. J: But this is the best route. Driver: I do not like it. J: I wish that no child ever
has to experience what these girls are living through. |
|
49 |
Journey to Mongo LOCATION: MONGO, GUECKEDOU |
[upsync: town cryer] We arrive in Mongo, a small market town in Gueckedou,
where many people are Bongonos. Jacques hopes someone here will know Fatou’s family. |
|
50 |
Jacques presenting the issue to
packed out village meeting room, women and children crowd in |
J: There is a girl who has gone abroad, but nobody knows how she
went. And the people over there wanted
to sell her. J’s brother: They can sell human beings. Just like this ruler. If
you buy it, you can take it anywhere you want. VO: Word spreads that there is a girl missing, and the
room quickly fills with people. J: If anyone knows her parents, tell us. [showing photo] Woman: Kumba, come and see her face. Woman: She’s 16-years-old. This is a mystery. She is beautiful. J: If you look at her well, maybe you
will recognise her. Woman: My heart is pounding. They sold her, not so they could
eat, but for labour. |
|
51 |
Jacques closing IV |
The situation is difficult, until now we don’t have a solution.
We pray to God that the family will be found. But we will keep looking, we
can’t give up. Even if we don’t find her family, we need to find her. |
|
|
|
12 - NASSER DOMESTIC WORKERS’ OFFICE |
|
52 |
Exterior of Domestic Workers’
office Music Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait |
Back in Kuwait, Ann’s search for Fatou has also hit a
dead end. With no other options we take our video of Fatou to the
Kuwaiti authorities to see if they can help find her. |
|
53 |
Nasser, Kuwaiti official in
dishdash, watching video of undercover meeting with Yannaty ASTON: Nasser al-Mousawi, Head of Domestic
Workers Office CAPTION: DOMESTIC WORKERS OFFICE,
GOVERNMENT OF KUWAIT |
Video: Look, this is Daddy and this is Mummy. Is she from Ghana or where’s she from? Oh I
forget, there have been so many. Ghana, Guinea, something like that. From
where? Nasser: This is against the law.
It isn’t even permitted to transfer a maid. VO: Nasser al-Mousawi is Head of the Domestic Workers Office.
It’s his job to manage complaints and disputes between domestic workers and
their employers. Nasser: The employer should not
have dealt with it in this way. Anyone who deals in this type of business
will be punished. Video: For my sake. She’s 16. By law
the domestic worker must be 21.If any domestic worker is found to be less
than 21, the user or anyone else involved in employing her, will be sent to
jail. When issues arise, Nasser
calls in employers and their domestic workers for questioning. With
this video we will start to look for her. We will start from the first
contact which will then show how she moved from person to person. All the
information is recorded in our state database. |
|
54 |
ASTON: May al-Tararwah, Lawyer, Social
Work Society |
Taking money for the domestic workers,
just to transfer their residency. Actually it has been going on for a long
time in Kuwait. May al-Tararwah is a lawyer at Social Work Society, an
organisation in Kuwait that supports domestic workers. I think that the lady is not aware of
this being a crime. She’s not aware of it. So, she did it because she felt
it’s normal because she’s old fashioned and that’s how they think. We come back to this wrong idea, that
because I paid money for this person I own them. We need to get rid of this
idea because this is a person, not a product. |
|
|
|
13 - FATOU IN SHELTER |
|
55 |
Shots of Kuwait City Music |
10 days later, the
Kuwaiti authorities contact Ann. There is good news. They have found Fatou. Ann: We got some information
that she is in the shelter already. So we are hoping that they will allow us
to talk to her. Because there is information that she admitted
already that she’s a minor. VO: Ann arranges to meet Fatou at the state-run
shelter for domestic workers. A government official is present and we’re not allowed to film their
conversation. |
|
56 |
|
There are over 200 domestic workers in this shelter. It’s
intended as a temporary place for them to stay while they’re fighting court
battles or awaiting deportation. An hour later Ann returns. |
|
57 |
Ann in car |
Ann: Good news, a good thing that we talked to her
personally. You can see it in her face she’s
so young, you know. I can sense like she's nervous.
She’s maybe traumatised about what happened to her here in Kuwait. Fatou told Ann she’d been in Kuwait for nine months and
worked for three households. But during that time, she had only received two
months salary. She
was studying in Guinea in ninth grade, but unfortunately things happened,
like, her mum died, and her uncle tells her that she needs to work. Ann: She wants to go home to be
with her family. They already tell the employers to bring all her things, all her bags. So they will bring it on
Saturday, and on Monday or Tuesday she will fly back to Guinea. Two days later, Fatou was deported back to Guinea. |
|
|
Urmila |
Kuwait
is one of the countries that has by far one of the most liberal sets of laws
in the region protecting domestic workers. Under Kuwaiti law it is illegal to
advertise, sell or enslave a domestic worker. But despite this legal
protection we see a domestic worker and a child domestic worker being sold in
flagrant violation of law. It leaves us wondering about the extent of
implementation of the laws that are meant to protect workers. And whether in
fact any employers are prosecuted for their violations of law. |
|
|
|
14 - ROR Kuwaiti Gov |
|
58 |
Kuwaiti government ROR |
Jess: What do you think of websites like
4Sale that openly advertise maids for sale? Nasser: We are at war with this type of
behaviour. These kinds of websites, and applications
like these, will be heavily
scrutinised. We are going to write a new set of regulations which will make
sure that websites like 4Sale are not permitted to host such ads. As yet, Kuwait has not
introduced any new regulations to tackle the online market in domestic
workers. The policeman and the woman
who tried to sell us Fatou did not provide us with a statement and no legal
action has been taken against them. The Kuwaiti government
declined to comment further on Fatou’s case. |
|
|
|
15 - FATOU BACK IN GUINEA |
|
63 |
Yannaty at market, buying things
for her grandma LOCATION:
CONAKRY, GUINEA |
[market, bartering] Fatou is back in Conakry Is this going to fit in the bag? We might
need another one. I am so happy. Even now, talking
about it, I’m still happy. My life is better now. I
feel like I’m coming back from slavery. |
|
64 |
Fatou at Marly’s home Yannaty showing sister-in-law
4sale app, and video of her being sold
|
Her uncle and grandmother can’t afford to take care of
her so she’s living with an adopted family. F: Come here! Come. Fatou didn't want to show her face on camera, but she
wants her story to be heard. [showing app] F: This is where they sell the
workers. I was sold at this price but they didn’t display my picture. They
wrote about how well I can clean the house and
everything. Sister-in-law - May God forbid us from
meeting these people [SHOWING VIDEO] F: There’s a video
I want to show you. W: So this is the one who was
selling you? F: Yes this one. They used to shout at me
and call me animal. F: It hurt, it made me sad, but there was
nothing I could do. I was afraid that if I insulted them back I would end up
in jail. F: If I had the
opportunity to talk to this lady, I would tell her that she’s wearing Muslim dress, but she’s
not Muslim, because Muslims wouldn’t act like
that. J: Did you understand at the time that you
were being effectively sold? F: No, I didn’t know. I wouldn’t wish it on
my worst enemy. |
|
|
Urmila |
Urmila: Businesses have a fundamental
responsibility morally, ethically and legally to make sure that under
national law and international law these apps are removed and they are no
longer available to the market. If Google, Apple, Facebook or any other companies
are hosting apps like these they have to be held accountable. What they are
doing is promoting an online slave market. |
|
65 |
Fatou with baby Jacques about to meet Fatou |
Man: He doesn’t know big-up. F: Goodbye. [Jacques & Fatou hi five] J: How are you? F: I’m fine, I’m so happy today. J: What’s your father’s name?
Where is he from? F: He’s
from the forest region. J: I know he’s from the forest region. We’ve
been all the way there. F: You know I was born here. J: Oh you were born here? F: I was born around here. So I do not speak
my father’s native language. J: From now on, you will learn how to speak
it. F: Thank you. J: But return back to school yeah? No, no,
stop laughing. It’s almost the start of school. Yannaty: Yes, I will go back to school. The online slave
market is still booming. And 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. Unless governments
enforce their own laws and the Silicon Valley tech giants apply stricter regulations
on their users, this online trade will continue, leaving many women exposed
to exploitation and abuse. |
|
59 |
4Sale ROR GFX |
Following our
investigation, 4Sale, the app which was used to sell Fatou, removed its
domestic workers section and gave us this statement: The allegations are appalling and ones that 4Sale completely condemns. 4Sale is committed to running
its business ethically and in line with the relevant laws and regulations in
Kuwait. |
|
60 |
Facebook/Instagram ROR GFX |
Facebook, which owns
Instagram, told us: We do not allow
content or behaviour on Instagram that may lead to human exploitation. Following an
investigation, we have banned the hashtag خادمات
للتنازل# (“#maidsfortransfer”) as much of the content
violated our policies. We also removed 703 violating accounts. But we found
hundreds of posts on Instagram, using similar hashtags, to sell domestic workers. Haraj, the commodity
app used in Saudi Arabia, did not provide us with a statement. We're deeply troubled by the
allegations, as this type of activity has no place on Google Play. And Apple said: We strictly prohibit the
solicitation or promotion of illegal behavior, including human trafficking
and child exploitation, in the App Store and across every part of our
business. We take any accusations or
claims around this behavior very seriously. [7] [8] [9] |
|
|
|
END |