The Apps are known as 4Sale and Haraj and can be downloaded on Apple's app store and Google play.

The use of these apps is widespread across the Middle East, and the BBC Arabic Service Undercover team decided to investigate how users of these apps use them for the buying and selling of black slaves, particularly young women from West Africa.

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Posing as a married couple newly arrived in Kuwait, the BBC Arabic undercover team spoke to 57 app users and visited more than a dozen people who were trying to sell them their domestic worker via a popular commodity app called 4Sale.

The sellers almost all advocated confiscating the women's passports, confining them to the house, denying them any time off and giving them little or no access to a phone.

The 4Sale app allowed you to filter by race, with different price brackets clearly on offer, according to category.

"African worker, clean and smiley," said one listing. Another: "Nepalese who dares to ask for a day off."

When speaking to the sellers, the undercover team frequently heard racist language. "Indians are the dirtiest," said one, describing a woman being advertised.

The team were urged by app users, who acted as if they were the "owners" of these women, to deny them other basic human rights, such as giving them a "day or a minute or a second" off.

One man, a policeman, looking to offload his worker said: "Trust me she's very nice, she laughs and has a smiley face. Even if you keep her up till 5am she won't complain."

He told the BBC team how domestic workers were used as a commodity.

"You will find someone buying a maid for 600 KD ($2,000), and selling her on for 1,000 KD ($3,300)," he said.

He suggested how the BBC team should treat her: "The passport, don't give it to her. You're her sponsor. Why would you give her her passport?"

In one case, the BBC team was offered a 16-year-old girl. It has called her Fatou to protect her real name.

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Fatou had been trafficked from Guinea in West Africa and had been employed as a domestic worker in Kuwait for six months, when the BBC discovered her. Kuwait's laws say that domestic workers must be over 21.

Her seller's sales pitch included the facts that she had given Fatou no time off, her passport and phone had been taken away, and she had not allowed her to leave the house alone - all of which are illegal in Kuwait.

"What they are doing is promoting an online slave market," said Urmila Bhoola, the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.

"If Google, Apple, Facebook or any other companies are hosting apps like these, they have to be held accountable."

After being alerted to the issue, Facebook said it had banned one of the hashtags involved.

Google and Apple said they were working with app developers to prevent illegal activity.

This online slave market is not just happening in Kuwait.

In Saudi Arabia, the investigation found hundreds of women being sold on Haraj, another popular commodity app. There were hundreds more on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.

The BBC team travelled to Guinea to try to contact the family of Fatou, the child they had discovered being offered for sale in Kuwait.

Every year hundreds of women are trafficked from here to the Gulf as domestic workers.

"Kuwait is really a hell," said one former maid, who recalled being made to sleep in the same place as cows by the woman who employed her. "Kuwaiti houses are very bad," said another. "No sleep, no food, nothing."

Fatou was found by the Kuwaiti authorities and taken to the government-run shelter for domestic workers. Two days later she was deported back to Guinea for being a minor.

She told the BBC about her experience working in three households during her nine months in Kuwait: "They used to shout at me and call me an animal. It hurt, it made me sad, but there was nothing I could do."

Now she is back at school in Conakry, where the BBC visited her.

"I am so happy," she said.

"Even now, talking about it, I'm still happy. My life is better now. I feel like I'm coming back from slavery."

The Kuwaiti government says it is "at war with this kind of behaviour" and insisted the apps would be "heavily scrutinised".

To date, no significant action has been taken against the platforms. And there has not been any legal action against the woman who tried to sell Fatou. The seller has not responded to the BBC's request for comment.

Since the BBC team contacted the apps and tech companies about their findings, 4Sale has removed the domestic worker section of its platform.

Facebook said it had banned the Arabic hashtag "خادمات للتنازل#" - which translates as "#maidsfortransfer".

"We will continue to work with law enforcement, expert organisations and industry to prevent this behaviour on our platforms," added a Facebook spokesman.

There was no comment from the Saudi commodity app, Haraj.

Google said it was "deeply troubled by the allegations".

"We have asked BBC to share additional details so we can conduct a more in-depth investigation," it added. "We are working to ensure that the app developers put in place the necessary safeguards to prevent individuals from conducting this activity on their online marketplaces."

Apple said it "strictly prohibited" the promotion of human trafficking and child exploitation in apps made available on its marketplace.

"App developers are responsible for policing the user-generated content on their platforms," it said.

"We work with developers to take immediate corrective actions whenever we find any issues and, in extreme cases, we will remove the app from the Store.

"We also work with developers to report any illegalities to local law enforcement authorities."

The firms continue to distribute the 4Sale and Haraj apps, however, on the basis that their primary purpose is to sell legitimate goods and services.

4Sale may have tackled the problem, but at the time of publication, hundreds of domestic workers were still being traded on Haraj, Instagram and other apps which the BBC has seen.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50228549

Meanwhile, Social Media users have been condemning the online slave trade as primitive and barbaric:

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Which kind "find"?...app wey full everywhere. Na so una tell us say Mungo Park discovered River Niger

Okoroawusa:
Which kind "find"?...app wey full everywhere. Na so una tell us say Mungo Park discovered River Niger

. River Niger wey Onitsha people dey go fetch water since time imoriver.

J111333:
. River Niger wey Onitsha people dey go fetch water since time imoriver.

See me see trouble o!

If those apps are only used in a specific geographic location, discovering them amounts to finding them.

The average non Arab mobile phone user who doesn't live in the Middle East probably wouldn't even know that these apps even exist.

Okoroawusa:
Which kind "find"?...app wey full everywhere. Na so una tell us say Mungo Park discovered River Niger

There are few as racists as Arabs
You can't blame them though, a billion muslims think God speaks and write Arabic.

Hmmm, lemme goan check

Sad!! good work BBC for exposing barbaric practices

Hmmm! Ok oo

se of these apps is widespread across the Middle East, and the BBC Arabic Service Undercover team decided to investigate how users of these apps use them for the buying and selling of black slaves, particularly young women from West Africa

Too bad

Arabs kwa? If there's anybody buying slaves with app it should be the Britains and Americans!

& how about those who offered to be sold for slavery....

This is sad. While I do not want to be aligned along religious lines, I have met and seen Muslims here in Nigeria who don't see anything wrong with enslaving women as well as sexual attraction to young and underage girls.

You will have to understand that these ideologies are enshrined in the Koran and these guys are just practicing what their Koran says (though there are quite a handful of "liberals" who do not wholeheartedly follow these laid down tenets in the Koran)

Hmmm

They should give this journalist Nobel prize. But this kinda job dikwa risky

[b]Arabs have always seen Africans as slaves and sub humans, the unfortunate thing here is that we as Africans have been brainwashed to worship and look up to Arabs as a result of religious indoctrination. The Arabs have NEVER liked Africans even in their religious doctrines this can be seen there!

Africans engage in wars because of doctrines in far away Saudi Arabia! Africans pay millions of dollars yearly as royalty to the Saudi monarchy and the OIC yet their citizens waste away in poverty.

It is a well known fact that the ENTIRE AFRICA used to be predominantly black, however Arabic conquests the first being the invasion of the Maghreb started decimating the African population while replacing them with ARABS, Now Tunisia (formerly CARTHAGE), LIBYA, MOROCCO, ALGERIA AND EGYPT, SUDAN are now all predominantly Arab . A CIA report some years ago showed that Arab governments and monarchs still had desires of pushing their conquest way beyond Sudan as far as to Mali, Chad and Burkina faso. They blind us with religion and attack from behind while we can't see them coming![/b]

Damnnnnn

As a real niggarrr

Am not surprised they learnt this from the people claiming to be investigating them

Okay

Religion of peace

Man's inhumanity to humans. If only they knew this https://www.nairaland.com/5507838/why-angels-marvel-miracle-called

Not only Africa and Philippines, I have this Filipino who has been tracking a friend in Saudi Arabia for sometime now. The Filipino in Saudi is not allowed to come in contact with people, she has been in this captivity for over 2 years now.

I read where some one said they are not Muslims, Arab Muslims are wicked, and they are criminals they are opposite of the whites they love putting on, their heart is crude and wicked. I have done business with them and I have lost my good money in two occasions.
They only care about their lazy, dirty and heartless wives and kids.

Let me go and download the app. Pls I am a slave for sale in case anyone needs me.

NOTE: Don't need any African master oh, me and u can't be slave and the same time

Infact Nigerians would agree to be sold wiillingly..

Anything for them to leave this shithole. All way na way

Beyond the illusion, note that Britain is on a massive campaign to rebrand themselves after exiting the EU. This includes making you blame others for their global slave trade business against your ancestors and to see them in a good light.

The so called slaves in the Midle East are mostly people stranded there after failure to cross over to Europe. They're not the type of ''slaves'' that made Britain wealthy. They're simply exploited domestic workers. They get paid but Britain never paid one dime to your ancestors, so take your mind off slaves. They control you with words！！

Yes, African ''domestic workers'' are being exploited in the Midle East but that's because your Allah has made you so stupid that you trust an Arab man, instead of heading back home.

Wow! Wow!! Wow!!! People should please be careful of agents, especially those who promise connect for jobs in these countries. A lot of these people actually travelled for greener pastures, not knowing they were being sold. Slavery in 2019 God please come to the aid of Africans. A lot of us are more intelligent than the so called 'whites'

Treat that keloid the natural way today contact me on zero 8 zero six two five one 1 six 1 0

Nah wah ooooo