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Eight Arab princesses have been accused of human trafficking and violating labor regulations in a Belgian court. Although the case had been reported to the police in 2008, the trial has only just begun with a first hearing held on Thursday morning.

In 2008, an employee of the Al-Nahyan family, one of the six royal families of the United Arab Emirates, escaped from a hotel in Brussels, where the princesses were staying. She alleged to the police that she and 19 others had been forced to work long hours, sometimes deprived of food and sleep, without possession of their visas and were verbally abused, reported Deutsche Welle.

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The police launched an investigation into the case and found evidence to support the allegations. However, due to various procedural challenges, some by the royal family members, the case has only just made it to trial this week.

“I did not have a room, I slept in the corridor on the floor,” Jamila, one of the servants, told La Dernier Heure, a local media outlet. “There was constant verbal abuse. The princesses did not like their Moroccan and Tunisian maids. They called us b****es.”