A Malawian woman who was lured to Oman with a job offer was enslaved and raped while sleeping just two hours a night.
Georgina, from Lilongwe, Malawi, broke down in tears as she relived the abuse she experienced in BBC Africa Eye’s new documentary Trapped in Oman.
The 32-year-old believed she had been hired to work as a driver in Dubai and, hoping for a better life, took the opportunity.
She owned a small business in Lilongwe and was just getting by when an agent approached her and told her she could make more money in the Middle East.
It was not until the plane landed in Muscat, the capital of Oman, that she realized she had been deceived and subsequently trapped by a family who made her work grueling hours, seven days a week.
Georgina, from Lilongwe, Malawi, was lured to Oman with a job offer and was enslaved and raped while sleeping just two hours a night.
“When I arrived I was greeted by a stranger, then they handed me over to another person who introduced himself as my boss,” he said.
‘They didn’t allow me to rest. I woke up at 3 in the morning and went to bed at 1 in the morning. I got to a point where I couldn’t stand it.’
Georgina hadn’t been there long when her boss started forcing her to have sex with him, threatening to shoot her if she said anything.
And he added: “It wasn’t just him, he brought friends and then they paid him.” He threatened me and said that if I screamed he would shoot me.
She struggled to speak as she recounted how she was forced to have anal sex: “I got hurt badly. “I felt very distressed.”
After several weeks, Georgina became desperate and in a Facebook post pleaded for someone to help her.
Thousands of miles away, in the US state of New Hampshire, Pililani Mombe Nyoni, a 38-year-old social media activist from Malawi, saw his message and began investigating.
He got in touch and got the Facebook post removed for Georgina’s safety and gave her his own WhatsApp number, which began circulating in Oman. She soon realized it was a broader problem.
An enslaved woman in Oman captured a video of her ‘boss’ exposing himself to her while she worked
Blessings suffered severe burns in the kitchen of the house where she worked, but her employer did not allow her to return to Malawi.
‘Georgina was the first victim. “She then she was a girl, two girls, three girls,” she told the BBC.
“That’s when I said, ‘I’m going to form a (WhatsApp) group because this looks like human trafficking.’
More than 50 Malawian women working in Oman eventually joined the group.
Soon, WhatsApp was filled with voice notes and videos, some too harrowing to watch, detailing the horrific conditions the women endured.
Many had their passports taken away as soon as they arrived, which prevented them from leaving.
Some told how they had locked themselves in the bathrooms to secretly send their messages of supplication.
“I feel like I’m in prison… we’ll never be able to escape,” one said. “My life is really in danger,” said another.
Ms Nyoni began speaking to anti-trafficking charities in Malawi and met Ekaterina Porras Sivolobova, founder of Greece-based Do Bold.
Do Bold works with migrant workers in the Gulf countries, identifying victims of trafficking or forced labor, and then negotiating with their employer to have them released.
‘Employers pay an agent to provide them with a domestic worker. One of the most common challenges we face is the employer or agent saying, “I want my money back and then you can go home,” Sivolobova told the BBC.
‘Existing laws (in Oman) prohibit a domestic worker from leaving his or her employer. He can’t change jobs or leave the country, no matter how they treat you.’
This is what is known in the Middle East as the ‘kafala’ labor system, which binds workers to their employers for the duration of their contract.
Oman’s National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking said the relationship between the employer and the domestic worker was contractual and that unresolved disputes can be referred to court within a week.
Thousands of miles away in the US state of New Hampshire, 38-year-old Malawian social media activist Pililani Mombe Nyoni began researching
The blessings finally returned last October, with the help of the Malawi government, an agent had previously lied to his family and said he had died.
It added that an employer was not allowed to “impose any form of forced labor on the worker” and could not keep a worker’s “passport and private documents without his or her written consent.”
After three months in Muscat, and with the help of Nyoni and someone in Oman, Georgina returned to Malawi in June 2021.
“After helping Georgina, I felt very angry, very angry,” Mrs Nyoni said.
Georgina’s case allowed her to raise the alarm within Malawi and began to increase pressure on the government to intervene.
The Malawian charity Center for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) launched a rescue campaign in Oman, calling on authorities to return the women home.
Blessings was another of the women in Mrs. Nyoni’s WhatsApp group. The 39-year-old traveled to Muscat in December 2022, leaving her four children with her sister, Stevelia, in Lilongwe.
He suffered severe burns in the kitchen of the house where he worked, but his employer did not allow him to return to Malawi.
She said: ‘The extent of the burns, believe me, I saw my sister lose her life. I remember my sister saying, “Sister, I came here because I needed a better life, but if I die, please take care of my children.” That hurt.’
Stevelia began pushing for her sister to be brought home. At first the agent angrily told the family that Blessings was dead, but this was not true and she finally returned last October, with the help of the Malawi government.
Blessings said: ‘I never thought there would come a time when I would see my family again, my children, I had no idea that there are people on this earth who treat others like slaves.’
For Georgina, it has been difficult to let go of the trauma. It calms her to go down and look at Lake Malawi, one of the largest in Africa.
The Malawi government, which also worked with Do Bold, said it had spent more than $160,000 (£125,000) to bring back 54 women from Oman.
But another woman, Aida Chiwalo, 23, returned home in a coffin. No autopsy or investigation was carried out in Oman after her death.
Oman authorities said the Ministry of Labor had not received any complaints from Malawian domestic workers in 2022 and only one complaint in 2023 that had been resolved.
“Most of these women have been released because money has been paid to the employer, between $1,000 and $2,000,” says Ms. Sivolobova.
“Basically, you had to buy your freedom. And that’s what bothers me. How can you buy someone else’s freedom?
A Malawi government spokesperson told the BBC it was developing rules “to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration that benefits migrants, their families and the country as a whole.”
But Nyoni, whose WhatsApp group is now more of a support forum for returnees, says the issue of domestic workers trafficked to Oman highlights a larger problem in Malawi: that of poverty and unemployment.
‘If young women had the opportunity to get jobs in Malawi, they would not be trapped. “We need to fix the nation so these young people are never trapped like this.”
For Georgina, it has been difficult to let go of the trauma. It calms her to go down and look at Lake Malawi, one of the largest in Africa.
‘When I look at the waves, it reminds me that nothing in life lasts forever. One day all this will be history,” she stated.
“I find peace and I am encouraged to return to how I was: the old Georgina, who was independent.”
Georgina testified against the officers who took her to Oman but after two years there have been no convictions.
It is estimated that there are around two million domestic workers in the Gulf Arab states.
In a survey of 400 women in Oman by immigrant charity Do Bold, published by the US State Department’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, almost all were found to be victims of human trafficking .
Nearly a third said they had been sexually abused, while half reported physical abuse and discrimination.
You can watch the full BBC Africa Eye documentary Trapped in Oman on the BBC Africa YouTube channel.