A mother who sold her new born baby for Dhs 4,000 has been jailed for three years.
The 22-year-old Indonesian woman was convicted of human trafficking at Dubai Court of First Instance.
She had claimed she lost her mind when she sold the baby girl to an undercover policewoman and policeman who posed as a couple wanting to buy the child.
Official records state the force got a tip-off that the woman was looking to sell the girl.
“She wanted to sell her own baby as she needed money. We called her and set a trap and even negotiated with her on the price and she reduced it to Dhs4,000,” a 37-year-old Emirati policewoman said in official records.
The officer added: “We met her in a car park in Al Qusais area and handed over the baby when we gave her the cash. We then arrested her.”
The woman confessed during investigations that she had come to the country to work as a housemaid in 2011 but absconded the following year and became a prostitute.
“I worked in around 10 brothels in Dubai and had many customers. I was offering my services for Dhs30,” the mother said in records.
She said she fell in love with a Pakistani customer and he asked her to leave prostitution and said he would take care of her.
“I became pregnant and he asked me to abort the baby. I refused. He dumped me and escaped so I continued working as a prostitute and gave birth in a flat in Muraqabbat,” she added.
The child is now being cared for at the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children’s shelter.
