Sunset

Nigerian scarlet ladies have now found a new market in Dubai pushed up by oil wealth and an increase in sex tourism. Sunset can authoritatively reveal.

Investigations by Sunset show that some Nigerian girls who ply the Dubai route are actually engaged in the sex trade but use shopping as disguise.

According to our findings, most of the girls work for sex cartels operated by Nigerians in Dubai and adjoining towns in the United Arab Emirate (UAE). Our findings indicate that the Arabian city is now most preferred to Italy, which used to be home to most Nigerian commercial sex workers.

We also found out that the attraction for Dubai is fuelled by easy visa procurement procedures and relaxed immigration rules.

Despite the puritanic disposition of the city, sex, we found out is huge business as tourists from Europe, America and other parts of Asia, flock the city in demand for Nigerian girls.

Our contact in Dubai said: “It is cheaper to get a Dubai visa which has two weeks validity. Entry to Dubai is easy. They have relaxed immigration rules plus its tourist nature. The whole world is here yet the natives pretend to be puritans; but inside their bedrooms one ashawo dey naked they wait for oga”.

Prodded on what drives the sex trade in Dubai, our contact said those who demand for Nigerian girls most are Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshi nationals.

“Plenty Nigerian girls are here selling sex to Indians, Bangladesh and Pakistan people,” adding that “some of them reside here; some come and go. And there is a ring of guys who arrange the senior chicks among them for rich Arabs, Britons, Americans and other rich visitors.”

Our contact also disclosed that not all Nigerian girls that go to Dubai live in good houses despite the touted beauty of the city.

According to him “there is a squatting culture here and most of them live in the suburb where there are cheap apartments.”

Sunset investigations also show that one factor that may be driving the Dubai sex market is the low HIV/AIDS prevalence in the city.

According to Global Aids Response Progress Report 2012, “undertaken under the auspices of His Excellency Abdulrahman Mohammed Al-Owais, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, Acting Minister of Health, and Dr. Mahmoud Fikri, Assistant Undersecretary for Public Health Policy”, HIV/AIDS prevalence in Dubai is said to be low.

According to the report only 11 persons (10 males and 1 female) were diagnosed with HIV in 2011, which marked an increase from only 8 persons (7 males and 1 female) in 2010.

The report put total HIV discoveries in the UAE in 2011 at 57 which was a marked increase from 36 found in 2010.

The report reads in part: The HIV situation in UAE can be characterised as low-prevalence. Since the 1980s – when the first HIV case was reported in UAE – till the end of 2011, a cumulative total of 726 HIV still-alive cases has been reported among UAE nationals: 546 males (75.2%) and 180 females (24.8%). The majority of HIV cases was found in the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, reflecting the larger populations in those two emirates, as well as possibly higher levels of risk behaviours, as both cities may be more exposed to high-risk phenomena associated with HIV. In the period 2010-2011, a total of 93 new HIV cases were reported among UAE nationals: 36 in 2010 and 57 in 2011.”