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Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent
A 31-year-old Marondera woman has appeared in court on allegations of recruiting people and selling them to prospective buyers in Oman to work as house maids.
Karen Pamela Teguru was facing charges of violating the Trafficking of People Act when she appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa on Wednesday.
She was remanded in custody pending trial.
Allegations are that between January and August last year, while working in connivance with someone identified as Hamidah, but believed to be in Oman and others who are still at large, she decided to traffic Portia Kalesi and Namatirai Muchacha for the purpose of labour and domestic exploitation.
Teguru identified, recruited, processed travelling documents, and arranged medical examinations for the two and escorted them to Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport destined for Oman instead of Dubai as promised.
The State further alleges that she escorted the two to make sure that they had flown out of the country into the hands of her accomplices.
The court heard that the two allegedly realised that they had been duped upon arrival at Muscat International Airport in Oman instead of Dubai as promised.
Teguru’s accomplices provided money for medical examinations, air tickets, processing of visas and sourcing of markets in which the two would be sold well before they had reached Oman.
It is the State’s case that upon arrival in Oman the two were received by accomplice Hamidah who would sell the two to prospective buyers who in turn confiscate their travelling documents and drove them to different locations were they would be forced to work as house maids.
The two were subjected to domestic servitude, working around the clock, feeding on left overs, physically abused and denied freedom of movement by being restricted indoors.
The matter came to light when the two reported the matter to their relatives back home who turn reported that matter to police.
The two fled from their abusers and met with the Zimbabwean delegation dispatched to Oman to repatriate them.
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