Sharjah: Four ringleaders of a human trafficking gang in Sharjah were sentenced to a year in jail each followed by deportation by the Sharjah Criminal Court of First Instance on Monday.

Presiding Judge Mahmoud Abkar announced the verdict on Monday morning.

The four Pakistani suspects were referred to the prosecution on the charges of human trafficking in April.

Human trafficker to face trial for exploiting 15 beggars

35 beggars rounded up in Sharjah in one day

They were accused of forcing 14 physically challenged people into begging.

The victims were sent to a shelter for the human trafficking victims in Abu Dhabi.

Human trafficking

The anti-human trafficking team of Sharjah Police arrested the gang members after they received an information that the suspects had brought 35 men and women of the same nationality to the country and they were forcing them to beg.

During the raid police discovered that the 35 victims, who had been brought to the UAE from Pakistan to beg, were kept in inhumane conditions.

The case, considered to be first he first of its kind in the UAE, was filed against the suspects in accordance with to UAE’s anti-human trafficking law.

Police investigations revealed that the head of the gang had brought the people of determination from different parts of Pakistan for forcing them into begging in the UAE.

In April, Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking, praised the efforts exerted by law enforcement agencies to uncover this case.

Sharjah Prosecution filed the case in accordance with Federal Law No. (51) for the year 2006 regarding combating human trafficking crimes, as amended by Federal Law No. (1) for the year 2015.