TRAPPED IN OMAN - BBC Africa Eye documentary

BBC Africa Eye investigates the plight of Malawian women lured to Oman with offers of domestic work, only to be trapped in a cycle of exploitation, with little hope of escape.

Through WhatsApp voice notes, videos, and texts, this documentary reveals their abusive ordeals, and exposes the tactics of agents that traffic and then abandon them. The investigation also examines the poverty and desperation that leads young people to seek opportunities in the Middle East, and the weak justice system that often allows their employers to abuse them with impunity.

Intimate testimonies reveal widespread accounts of sexual and physical abuse, or worse, of African workers - and the film follows the work of an extraordinary network of women working across three continents fighting to bring them home, often against impossible odds.

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Africa Eye brings you original, investigative journalism revealing secrets and rooting out injustice in the world’s most complex and exciting continent. Nothing stays hidden forever.

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Credits:
Head of Longform – LIZ GIBBONS
Africa Eye Editor – TOM WATSON
Director and Executive Producer – NICOLA MILNE
Film Editor – FINLAY MILNE
Investigative Producer – KASSIM MOHAMED
Reporter – FLORENCE PHIRI
Archive – VOICE OF AFRICA, VOA, NEWS CENTRAL AFRICA
Additional Camera – ROBERT MBETEWA
Additional Translation – SUSAN MATIYA
Online Editor – CHRIS STOTT
Colourist – BOYD NAGLE
Dubbing Mixer – JEZ SPENCER
Reversioning Producer and Film Research – ANNA PAYTON
Digital Producer – TAMASIN FORD
Impact Producer – ADELLE KALAKOUTI
Social Media Producer – ANUSHA KUMAR
Production Coordinator – ABIGAIL KNIGHT
Production Manager – SIMON FROST
Camera - Malawi – PETER MAZUNDA
Camera - USA – DEREK ELLIS
Camera - Greece – VANIA TURNER
Fixer – HENRY MHANGO

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#Malawi #Oman #DomesticWorker #Migrants #MigrantLabour #WomensRights #MiddleEast

[nightingaleofficial]

Blocking the abusers face is part of the problem. These people need to be exposed and shamed all around the world. No privacy for them.

[nellamed]

Two of my cousins were trafficked to Oman. Many thanks to the Zimbabwean government for bringing them back home safely .

[blueclic]

For all the black people that go to the UAE and Dubai on holiday please wake up! WE NEED TO BOYCOTT THESE COUNTRIES!

[mulikatisa]

The saddest thing is another young African lady is watching this and saying 'my story will be diff" 😢.

[zamazoh]

As an African, I'm so angry. This needs to be circulated to all Social Media. Especially TikTok. To spread the word Agencies should be exposed.

[Isuraaye]

As African men, as Black men, it's insane how we allow this to happen to our women.

[simoni]

As a Malawian, I am angry at those oppressors but also at our own government for making our own country hard to survive in.

[Flower-ckbs]

This is not only in Oman. All arab countries are the same. Malawi wake upp!

[IB_info]

My partner's cousin was in Jordan. She was in big trouble she became mentally ill and they didn't want to release her. Luckily a family member who was a British journalist helped to get her released but she was severely ill and could not even remember her mother. Now she is fine, we thank God.

[manuari]

I'm a Kenyan and such issues have been reported many times in the media. But what makes me angry is when one body is flown back to the country other ladies are busy boarding planes to go to these Arab countries. They are aware of what awaits them but they rather go and face inhumane treatment than stay in their country. Some years back I used to hear stories but now I know of relatives and friends who work as domestic workers in Arab countries. One of my relatives came back in a very critical condition almost losing her life so we thought she wouldn't go back but shock on us, after she recovered she approached another agent, and as we speak she is not in the country. African countries should unite and put an end to this modern slavery.

[khadijahmohammed]

I have a cousin who went to work in Saudi, she returned and doesn't want to even speak about the ordeal she went through. She said never in your life as an African young female women go there. she said if hell has a place in this wold, its there.
African women no matter our desperation for better opportunities, the middle east should never come cross our minds.

[mediofes]

I’m Omani, I’m from Oman I would love to help I saw all the documentary and I’m surprised this is happening here in my country so I would be glad to help because I’m human and what I saw is against humanity

[esthermkandawire]

This could have been my story. I thank God i put my foot down and said no. Poverty at home is better than Poverty in a different country. This is just not it

[noah]

How difficult is it for AFRICAN Governments to pass laws to ban operations of these recruiters?
We see it playing over and over on TV of girls trapped in Lebanon, Dubai, Saudi Arabia. Let’s live in our poverty in Africa instead of traveling to the Middle East where conditions are even worse than our perceived African poverty.

[mck]

It seems these people who mistreat housekeepers are not really looking for housekeepers. They are looking for people to unleash their anger on and capture

[splfvds]

It's not only Oman. It's so bad in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and many islam countries. The entire Middle East is like that.

[jacquelinewilson]

The countries that enable modern day slavery need to be held accountable. The child filmed hitting the enslaved servant was just appalling. What kind of culture enables such behaviour?

[samdavid]

We black Africans need to LOVE OURSELVES FIRST, NOBODY WILL LOVE US IF WE DON'T LOVE OURSELVES

[mamakalami]

I have experienced horrible treatment from Arab men....even when I was on transit in Dubai. They are rude, loud, abusive and racist. This is my experience as a Muslim woman.

[victoriantaba]

How is it that the agents responsible are still roaming around free despite all these evidences?