Indian police say they have rescued 17 women from East Africa, including 14 Kenyans, from a prostitution ring in India and arrested three suspects.
Acting on a tip-off from the public, police said the 14 Kenyans, two Ugandans, and a Tanzanian were among the rescued on Friday, August 23, after the authorities raided a three-storey building in Hyderabad District.
According to local publications, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the police raided a house at the Kondapur area and arrested three suspects accused of organizing what is believed to be a prostitution racket.
Police said the ring leader connected with this group of foreign nationals online and offered them accommodation and other facilities.
“He created a section on the ‘Locanto’ classified site where he uploaded the profiles and operated his prostitution racket. The women have been going around multiple cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad,” the detectives said as quoted by The Hindu newspaper and website.
According to the police, the women arrived in India on tourist and medical visas, some of which have since expired but chose to stay on.
It is estimated that the prostitution ring collected between Sh4,602 and Sh30,682 from clients per day.
During the raid, police seized four mobile phones, 104 condoms, hookah pots, HIV kits and sex toys. The suspects were remanded while the 17 women were taken to a rescue home.
The rescue comes just days after the Kenyan government warned its citizens not to seek illusory jobs in South Asian countries, including troubled Myanmar, where they have ended up in slavery.
A government notice on August 16, said that dozens of Kenyans, and other East African nationals, had been lured to Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia to work as English-language educators, but only end up as overworked, underpaid labourers.
The embassy said the problem had become bigger, especially after recruiters tasked other Kenyans to convince compatriots to join them under false promises.
The Embassy said it had recently worked with local authorities to rescue as many as 140 Kenyans and other East Africans, reflecting how the trend continued unabated despite warnings from 2022.
“Despite extensive warnings and awareness campaigns, the persistence of these scams remains a significant concern,” the embassy said.
The embassy says Kenyans in Myanmar have now become human trafficking agents on behalf of criminal cartels.
The agents, some of whom are Kenyans, receive large sums of money from unsuspecting Kenyans, as much as Sh300,000, to obtain a visa at the Thai embassy in Nairobi and pay for an air ticket.
The embassy reports that most Kenyans are duped by fake job advertisements in Thailand, especially in customer care, front office, cryptocurrency and teaching jobs.
“Only to arrive in Thailand and find that there are no such jobs. Some of the Kenyans have ended up destitute in Bangkok, sleeping on the streets and begging for food from strangers,” the embassy added.
On January 20, a Kenyan woman who was lured to India with the promise of getting a better job was rescued by Indian Police after escaping from the preying hands of her traffickers.
According to police, the victim had jetted into the Asian country under the impression she was going to work at a supermarket only to be sold into sex work.
Following her getaway, police would rescue her in the streets of Chennai, South of India. She was found roaming near a bus station.
