Three Indian waitresses flee Bahrain

Middle East News

Three Indian waitresses flee Bahrain

Dubai, July 6 (IANS) Three Indian waitresses in Bahrain, who claimed they were forced into prostitution at the restaurant they worked in, have reportedly fled the country.

The three, aged 24, 25 and 35, had alleged they were forced into prostitution by the restaurant manager and a woman supervisor, both Indians, in order to make the customers spend more.

According to a report in the Gulf Daily News newspaper, the three flew out of Bahrain Tuesday night without informing the Indian embassy or the law firm that had taken up their case.

The report quoted sources as saying that the three had been paid all their dues, plus compensation, by the restaurant's management. A number of customers of the restaurant also reportedly gave them money at the airport.

The trio alleged that they were kept confined in their apartment in Manama between their work shifts. All their salary was deducted to meet accommodation charges, compelling them to survive on tips.

They had alleged that they were forced into doing sexual acts and drinking with male customers to increase the take from each table.

The customers were usually Indian but whenever any Bahraini came, the manager and the supervisor signalled them to hide, as they feared that it could be a plainclothes policeman, the women alleged.

One of the women eventually contacted the Indian embassy in Manama. All three were rescued last Sunday, following which they filed a criminal complaint with the police. The case was supposed to come up for hearing at the public prosecutor's court Tuesday.

While two of the women had been working in the restaurant for the last eight months, the third had been in Bahrain for two years.

The newspaper report quoted Indian Ambassador Balkrishna Shetty as saying that he would write to the chief secretary of Kerala, from where the women hailed, to check with the families under what circumstances they withdrew the case and left the country.

'I shall also write to the Bahrain interior ministry, asking how they were allowed to withdraw a criminal case, because both governments, Bahrain and India, are concerned over issues such as trafficking in women,' he told the newspaper.

'We will request the interior ministry to keep a watch on the activities of this restaurant.'

Apart from saying that the fact of the women fleeing proved that their charges were false, the restaurant management did not give any other comment, according to the report.

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Three Indian waitresses flee Bahrain