UAE princesses get weak sentence in Belgium trafficking case

(Web Desk) - For many people the word princess invokes images of royalty, dignity and stateliness. Unfortunately as is often the case there is a great difference between our precipitation of things and the way they really are. In the Arab world princesses act less like dignified royalty and more like slave drivers if one looks at the human trafficking case placed by Belgium against eight princesses from the United Arab Emirates.

The case (which was officially registered in 2008) had been placed against Princess Sheikha al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi s ruling al-Nahyan family and her seven daughters who are all accused of human trafficking as well as of mistreating employees. It began when a servant managed to supposedly escape from a luxury Brussels hotel where the UAE royals were staying and complained of mistreatment to the local police.

As the case began to receive publicity in Belgium and abroad more details about the princesses and their servants began to emerge. The UAE royals had supposedly occupied a whole floor at the Conrad Hotel in Brussels for several months in 2007 and 2008.According to the Tribune de Geneve paper they had also brought more than 20 servants of different nationalities along with them to care for their personal needs. The servants “were not paid” and were “worked day and night and had to sleep on the floor,” They were also forbidden from leaving the hotel rooms and were constantly “shouted at and abused” by the princesses.

As human trafficking and exploitation of employees are serious offenses in Belgium the case could have proved to quite serious for the UAE royals. However on Friday, a criminal court in Brussels found Princess Shekha and her daughters guilty of trafficking and degrading treatment. They were handed 15-month suspended sentences and ordered to pay a fine of €165,000 (US$184,000), with half of the sum suspended. Prosecutors said that the women (none of whom had appeared in court for the proceedings) had been given such a light sentence because they were not the actual employers of the servants. The defense had also weakened the case by blaming the Belgian police of violating the rights of their clients by searching their hotel rooms and questioned the reliability of the witnesses statement. Defense lawyers had also objected to the wording used during the trial stating that the word “trafficking,” used in the verdict, had nothing to do with “smuggling illegal labor into a country,” but referred instead “to employing labor in unworthy conditions. “in the present case.

While this case is noteworthy for the fact that the punishment did not fit the crime it is hardly the first of its type to occur in Europe. In January, the European Court of Human Rights reviewed a case involving a family from Dubai bringing three Philippine servants to Vienna.

The maids were reportedly abused by their employers and were forced to take care of the children and household round the clock as well as receiving constant threats.

However, in the end the court decided that the trial had “no realistic chance of success” as the employers had already left the EU and there is no legal basis between the UAE and Austria to carry out such proceedings.

Still as NGO’s protecting human rights continue to gain strength in Europe it is quite possible that the next Arab royals who engage in such practices may not be able to get off so easily.