BBC News unveils the existence of an electronic market selling domestic workers

The online newspaper BBC News unveiled the existence of an electronic market dedicated to the sale of domestic workers in the Gulf countries. After conducting a major investigation accompanied by interviews and video footage in secret, the online newspaper revealed the existence of individuals selling domestic workers in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Two journalists introduced themselves as a couple seeking to hire a domestic worker and traveled to Guinea.

The investigation revealed that domestic workers in Kuwait are locked up, deprived of their basic rights and subject to auction. And to add that the electronic market in question exposes thousands of photos of the interested through an application; the workers are divided according to their origins and are 'bought' for a few thousand dollars.

The BBC News investigation has shown that female workers are illegally bought and sold through apps available on Google and Call whose promotion goes through Instagram, owned by the Facebook group. The BBC News team was mistaken for a couple that recently moved to Kuwait and made contact with 57 users of these apps. The couple visited more than ten people looking to sell their services through an application called 'Sale4' that allows workers to choose their origin.

The journalists said that the workers are considered as any commodity and that some buy women workers for 600 dinars ($ 2,000) to sell them at 1000 dinars ($ 3300).

This electronic market is also active in Saudi Arabia where hundreds of workers are sold via a 'Harraj' application while others are sold simply via Instagram. The journalists came into contact with the applications and companies which led the 'Sale4' application to remove the section dedicated to the workers while Facebook banned the pages that carry out this kind of operations.

In this context, Google and Appel told BBC that such practices have no place in their space and have ensured that they work with their developers to prohibit these illegal acts to eradicate completely their platform.