African woman promised job at B.C. salon, but instead became unpaid maid: Crown

VANCOUVER – The human trafficking trial of a woman accused of forcing a young Tanzanian woman into domestic servitude has heard allegations the young woman was forced to work long hours with no pay while her passport was kept locked away.

Mumtaz Ladha faces several charges over accusations she deceived immigration officials to bring the alleged victim to Canada, and then forced the woman to work as a maid.

The trial started earlier this month, but Crown counsel Simon Charles outlined the prosecution’s case in what was described as a mid-trial opening statement.

Charles says the Crown will present evidence to show the victim, whose name is banned from publication, met Ladha in Africa when she was hired to work at a salon.

Charles says at one point, Ladha convinced the victim, who had a young child, to come to Canada for six months to work at a salon in the Vancouver-area.

But Charles says when the young woman arrived, she was instead handed a maid’s outfit and told to clean the family home.

The victim fled to a woman’s shelter in June 2009 with the help of a woman she had met while living in a tony area of West Vancouver.