Four more report ordeal from Asie Ocansey
Four more young women have reported to the police about their ordeal in the Gulf countries after they had been taken away by Princess Asie Ocansey to work as domestic servants and shop assistants.
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The new victims told horrifying stories about the ordeal they went through in Kuwait and Bahrain.
According to the police, the four reported at the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service, following media reports of the arrest of Princess Ocansey and the horrifying story of one her victims.
The police said the victims claimed that instead of the promised jobs with attractive salaries, free accommodation and feeding, they were paraded half naked as orphans who had come from a very poor country and, therefore, needed the help and support of ‘buyers’ for them to survive.
On arrival in Kuwait, the victims said they were kept in a room after their passports, money and mobile phones had been seized from them.
They were fed just once in a day with Syrian bread and water and were paraded out in the open, half naked every night to attract prospective buyers.
According to the police, some of the victims were allegedly sold out into what could be called modern-day slavery.
They were taken to homes, farms or wherever their buyers wanted to take them to engage in very hazardous and laborious activities, while others were even forced into prostitution.
On Tuesday, February 6, 2013, Princess Ocansey, was arrested by the police for allegedly recruiting young Ghanaian women and men to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia to work as domestic servants and butchers.
Princess Ocansey allegedly hosts a radio programme on Sunny FM every Saturday afternoon and uses the platform to recruit the victims.
She is also said to have visited churches to lure the youngsters into believing that their lives would change if they travelled outside the country.
The Director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Mrs Patience Quaye, said the complainants in Ocansey’s case included the American Embassy in Accra and a young woman.
The identity of the young woman, aged 27, has been withheld for technical reasons.
Meanwhile, Princess Asie Ocansey says she has instructed her lawyers to respond to media reports that she had been arrested for allegedly trafficking young women and men to the Gulf countries to work as domestic servants and butchers.
In a telephone interview in Accra Wednesday, she said she would not deny or admit that she had been arrested by the police for the crimes and said her lawyers would respond at the appropriate time.
Story by Mary Mensah