The Malawi WhatsApp group that saved women trafficked to Oman

A 32-year-old woman breaks down in tears as she relives the abuse she experienced when, hoping for a better life, she found herself working as a maid in Oman. Georgina, who like all the trafficked women interviewed by the BBC opted to only use her first name, believed she had been recruited to work as a driver in Dubai. She had owned a small business in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital, and was managing when approached by an agent saying she could earn more money in the Middle East. It was not until the plane landed in Muscat, the capital of Oman, that she realised she had been deceived and subsequently trapped by a family who made her work gruelling hours, seven days a week. “I reached a point where I couldn’t take it,“ she says, detailing how she got as little as two hours’ sleep. She had not been there long when her boss began forcing her to have sex with him, threatening to shoot her if she said anything. “It wasn’t only him,“ she says. “He would bring friends and they would pay him after.“ She struggles to speak as she recounts how she was forced into anal sex: “I got badly injured. I became so distraught.“ For more updates: