THREE restaurant managers who allegedly forced waitresses to give sexual favours to customers are facing trial on human trafficking charges.
The suspects have been accused at the High Criminal Court of using violence to force four expatriate women in their mid-20s to work for no wages and detaining them in restaurant-owned apartments.
“The defendants are accused of forcing victims to let customers molest them, under threat of a beating,” court documents read.
“They are also accused of kidnapping the victims, putting them under constant surveillance and making them work with no days off, for no pay and for very long hours.”
Two defendants, a businessman and a female office manager, denied the charges before judges yesterday. A third defendant, who is still at large, is accused of driving the women to and from work, and continuously watching their movements.
All the defendants and their alleged victims are Indian.
According to Public Prosecution documents, the scheme was uncovered when the Gudaibiya restaurant was visited by Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) staff during a routine inspection.
“I came to Bahrain because of difficult living conditions at home,” one of the waitresses, aged 25, told prosecutors. “I went to an employment agency in India, where I paid an amount of money to work in Bahrain.
“I was shocked when, in addition to my duties, I was asked to sit with customers, flirt with them and allow them to feel me up. I was forced to do it or I wouldn’t be paid. At any rate, the only payment we received was gratuities from customers after we performed sexual services.”
She added that she lived in an apartment owned by the restaurant and was not allowed to leave it apart from when she was being transported to and from her workplace.
Another waitress, aged 24, told prosecutors that the female defendant hit her because she would not seduce customers. Two women, aged 25 and 26, gave similar witness statements.
Police records indicated that one of the defendants, a 37-year-old, had been previously accused of similar crimes, the court heard.
An inspector at the LMRA recounted the routine visit of the restaurant. “When we entered the establishment, waitresses asked us to pick a table and told us that they provided customer-accompanying services,” the statement read.
“We informed them that we were inspectors and requested to see their managers, who we asked to present us with permits and employee identification documents.
“It turned out that the managers had no salary statements, contracts, receipts or any data proving that the workers were employed there.”
The court was told that the waitresses ‘appeared to be in a state of fear’ and pled with inspectors to help them.
“The women told us that they were fooled and were forced to pay BD500 to the defendants for immigration fees, but that they later discovered they were tricked,” he added.
The two defendants who are in custody reportedly admitted to prosecutors that they did not pay their employees a fixed salary.
Government records show that the owners of the restaurant’s commercial registration (CR) own nine other restaurants, a hotel and a tourism firm. The trial was adjourned to May 30 for defence arguments.
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