France probes Saudi prince for modern-day slavery claims

French prosecutors said yesterday they were investigating a Saudi prince after seven former female employees accused him of holding them in a state of modern slavery.

The public prosecutor’s office in the city of Nanterre near Paris said the seven women born between 1970 and 1983, mostly from the Philippines, filed a modern-slavery complaint against their former employer in October 2019.

The alleged abuse occurred in 2008, 2013, and 2015 in the prince’s apartment in the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine to the west of the capital.

A source familiar with the investigation said the prosecutors heard from the women “weeks ago”, but not from the Saudi prince who is currently outside France.

According to the source, the workers were hired in Saudi Arabia to serve the prince, his wife, and four children but they were “at their employer’s disposal day and night throughout the week” while some of them had to sleep on the floor.

They managed to escape during a trip to France, the source noted.

READ: Saudi Prince Talal’s ex-wife has $730,000 in goods stolen in Paris