British model’s kidnapping puts spotlight on sex trafficking in Mideast

The 20-year-old says she was lured to Italy with the promise of a photo shoot, then drugged and kidnapped by a man who advertised her as a sex slave on the criminal "dark web." Ayling says her captor released her at the British consulate in Milan. Her lawyer acknowledges that aspects of the case seem bizarre. (RAI via AP)

A flyer for the "Black Death Group", which police say was found in a shop used as a pretend photographer's studio in Milan, where a British model was kidnapped, is seen in this August 5, 2017 handout picture provided by the Italian Police in Milan, Italy. (Polizia Di Stato/Handout via Reuters)

Lukasz Pawel Herba, the suspected kidnapper of a British model, is seen in this August 5, 2017 handout picture provided by the Italian Police in Milan. (Polizia Di Stato/Handout via Reuters)

LONDON: The case of Chloe Ayling, the British model reportedly “kidnapped to order” for Middle East buyers, has put the issue of sex trafficking back into the spotlight — but is far from typical of such crimes involving the region, experts say.
The 20-year-old Ayling was reportedly lured to Italy for a photoshoot, where she was allegedly drugged and transported in a bag from Milan to Borgial, an isolated village near Turin.
She has claimed she was detained for six days while her alleged Polish captor, Lukasz Herba, tried to auction her online as a sex slave.
The targeted buyers were reportedly from the Middle East, although Ayling’s lawyer could not specify their nationality when contacted by Arab News.
Ayling initially told Milan police she was at times held with her hands and feet cuffed, after allegedly being kidnapped and transported inside a canvas bag. She was released at the British consulate on July 17.
Doubts have been raised over the case after Ayling was reportedly spotted shopping with her alleged captor during the time she said she was being held, according to court documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Ayling’s lawyer and the talent agent who sent her to Italy have lashed out at skeptics who have expressed doubts about the story, the news agency reported.
Jakub Sobik, a spokesperson for Anti Slavery International, told Arab News that while the case has attracted considerable worldwide attention, “It is not a typical case of slavery at all.”
Sobik said that traffickers do not normally abduct their victims. “More commonly, the victims will have their passports taken away or they will be vulnerable because they have nowhere to go,” he said.
Sobik urged global governments to help combat the growing might of the clandestine “dark web” by equipping police and cyber experts with expert training and to boost awareness of the socio economic drivers that drive sex trafficking.
According to a May 2014 report from the International Labor Organization (ILO), an estimated 21 million victims are trapped in modern-day slavery. Of these, 14.2 million (68%) were exploited for labor, 4.5 million (22%) were sexually exploited, and 2.2 million (10%) were exploited in state-imposed forced labor.
There were an estimated 600,000 human trafficking victims in the Middle East in 2014, according to the ILO report. The Asia-pacific region accounts for the largest number of human trafficking victims — 11.7 million. The Developed Economies and European Union account for 1.5 million victims.
According to the “Living as Commodities: Human and Sex Trafficking in the GCC 2016” report from Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHR), regional countries are highly dependent on foreign labor and therefore have a large number of migrants who are vulnerable to trafficking and abuse.
“The need for migrant labor begets the opportunity for trafficking,” the report said.
“Many of these workers come from South Asia, Africa and Asia with hopes of supporting their families but find after they have already traveled to the (Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC) that their contracts and wages have been changed.”
Lana Baydas, a researcher for the Humans Right Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Arab News: “There is a high demand for domestic work and agricultural workers in the GCC. A lot of people come to the GCC countries with the hope of a good salary but in reality there is no form of protection and often their passports are locked away from them.”
A report by Amnesty points to the “exploitation and abuse” faced by migrant workers in Qatar. “Domestic workers, mostly women, remained at particular risk of exploitation and abuse as they continued to be excluded from existing labor protections,” Amnesty said on its website.
Baydas urged GCC governments to put in place the necessary legal structures to protect migrant workers so they are less wide open to abuse and sex trafficking.
Baydas added that the refugee crisis in the region, in Syria and Libya particularly, was accelerating cases of sex trafficking in Middle East. “These traffickers are opportunistic. The refugees are hoping to flee to Europe for a better life, but the smugglers take their money and then put them into human trafficking systems. The traffickers use hope to exploit their victims.”