Report on sexual slavery within the UAE.

The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) remains a destination country for men and women trafficked for the purpose of involuntary servitude and commercial sexual exploitation.

Read the full article here.

Relevant links (with excerpts):

Human trafficking from Armenia to Dubai, UAE

… when she arrived in Abu Dhabi she was taken to a brothel where a pimp told her that he had bought her for $7000. From that moment on she was to work as a prostitute until she paid off her so-called debt. After three months of captivity, Tanya managed to escape. She bolted to a police station and recounted her story. Incredibly, she was charged with prostitution and sentenced to three years in a desert prison. In 2001, psychologically crushed and ashamed, Tanya was released. Nothing happened to her pimp. Branded a prostitute by the Muslim nation, she was summarily deported back to her Ukraine.

Private sector ‘can help combat human trafficking’

He said T.S. and M.K. used the victim’s poverty to subjugate and exploit her into working in the sex industry unwillingly. “The couple bought her from an unidentified person for Dh4,300 after she reportedly abandoned her sponsor. When she refused to have sex with customers, she got brutally beaten by the female suspect,” said the Attorney General.

New study shames human traffickers

Countries in the Middle East have been named as the worst culprits of human trafficking.

A new report by an international trade unions’ umbrella organisation says Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen are notorious destinations for women trafficked from Kenya.

Its report, ‘Trafficking in Persons — The Eastern Africa Situation’, notes that women and children were favourite targets for well-organised trafficking rings, which operate freely for lack of solid laws against the vice.

Stress on global network to fight human trafficking

A teacher in her home country, Noora says she was tempted by the promise of a good job and salary in Dubai. It was the first time that she had ever left her home country and her job and visa were arranged by a man she was put in contact with by a friend from her home town.

In her early 20’s at the time, Noora was told to expect a representative from the school where she was to work to collect her from the airport. Instead, she was met by a couple who took her to their home in Sharjah and locked her inside a room in a high-rise.

“The first couple of days were a blur. I kept asking when I was starting my job. The wife laughed and said there is no school - that I had to work as a prostitute,” she remembers. “I was terrified and couldn’t do anything. I was powerless.”

UAE: Probe begins into Indian Human Trafficking Racket

The 54 year-old visitor identified as A.K.S, 50, and his wife identified as M.S, were waiting for a connecting flight to Paris when they were arrested. They were reportedly carrying fake passports of two young boys accompanying them.

The data recorded in the passports of the two minors showed them to be the sons of the accused but upon questioning, the couple denied being the parents, claiming they had been asked by some people in Mumbai to hand over the children to someone in Paris.

Gulf Daily News reports this morning:

A HUMAN rights society is stepping up its campaign to combat sex trafficking in Bahrain through the Internet.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights is already investigating the perpetrators behind websites that are offering sex to customers here and in other Gulf countries, and now with the same technology it hopes to help solve the problem.

It believes raising awareness about sex trafficking and offering victims a way out are the keys to making a difference.

The society plans to approach companies, bloggers, recruiters, organisations and others to post on their website a banner in various languages that will contain information about sex trafficking and useful contacts for victims.

Similar information will be sent through an e-mail campaign.

The society also hopes to produce a film exposing sex trafficking in Bahrain.

“I want this issue to be discussed in the community, on websites and in the media,” said BYSHR president Mohammed Al Maskati.

“We opened the file and will continue to work on this. We want to do something to help these women.”

The move follows the group’s discovery that women from Europe, Middle East and Asia were being brought to Bahrain and advertised for sex through more than 50 Arabic and English websites.

The BYSHR’s investigation found more than 1,000 pictures of girls who were all below the age of 25.

The main website advertising sex in Bahrain is based in the US, but the GCC co-ordinator is thought to be operating from here, noted Mr Al Maskati.

It has more than 13,500 members, which includes pimps, prostitutes and customers.

“We are monitoring the sites and found within just two days 1,200 members had been added,” he told the GDN.

“Now we are starting to see websites advertising sex in Bahrain that are established Africa.”

Mr Al Maskati said Bahrain’s amnesty scheme that allows illegal workers and residents to leave the country without penalty is an ideal opportunity for victims of sex trafficking to free themselves.

However, he said, some of these women were unaware of the scheme and even if they knew about it they were prevented from going.

“Some women don’t know about amnesty, they don’t have access to a newspaper or TV, or speak Arabic or English, so how would they know where the ministry and police are?

“Also the women may owe the sponsor money for her ticket and visa and will be forced to pay him back before he lets them go.”

Mr Al Maskati called for authorities to implement a better monitoring system of expatriate workers in Bahrain.

He said authorities needed to conduct thorough checks to ensure expatriates were employed in the job for which they had been issued a visa.

“Someone called me to say an Indian sponsor had married an Indian women and brought her to Bahrain so she could work as a prostitute and every month she has to give him BD200.

“There are also some Bahrainis who marry four women and create a small network advertising them for sex.”

Anyone with information about sex trafficking through the Internet in Bahrain and the Gulf, or who needs help, should contact Mr Al Maskati on 39813867

Cross-posted on the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights.

Following up on this previous report, BYSHR notes:

The second report on Human Trafficking case
By: Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights

August 15th, 2007

Introduction:

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) has recently published its first report on “Human Trafficking in Bahrain” (1). The report referred to Human Trafficking gangsters interested in misusing women all over Bahrain. One of the regular visitors of chatting websites told BYSHR about his own experience and how he discovered that they are prostitution websites. The moderators of these websites offered him girls for sex from Bahrain and from all over the world.

BYSHR believes that the prostitution business is organized by local networks in Bahrain that have strong ties with international networks. They provide prostitution service via the Internet. Therefore, BYSHR will continue its struggle to eliminate such networks by unveiling the files of “Human Trafficking – Sexual Misuse of Women” in Bahrain. The association shall reveal all the information it holds about sexual misuse of women on the World Wide Web.

How do women are misused for trafficking:

The victims coming from foreign countries are seduced with tricky plans. Usually, they arrive to Bahrain with gratefulness to those who brought them here. They can hardly identify where they exist because of their incapacity to use the local language. They do not have any one to resort to when the “Human Trafficking” hide their passports and identity documents. Then, they are seduced by offering to upgrade their living standard, provide appropriate job vacancy, and ensure a better future to their families in their origin countries.

Read the rest of the entry.

According to Reuters:

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has criticised U.S. charges that it is guilty of human trafficking, saying a U.S. State Department report was misleading and ignored Saudi efforts to stamp out the practice.

Saudi Arabia was among 16 countries listed in an annual report released last month on the world’s worst offenders in failing to prevent people being sold into the sex trade and servitude.

The countries are subject to possible sanctions, including the loss of U.S. aid and U.S. support for World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans.

Withholding loans and aid is not a concern for Saudi Arabia, whose economy is booming on high oil prices, but the Islamic state is trying to shed its image as a human rights abuser.

“Examining the American report on human trafficking, we felt that it was misleading … It contains descriptions, opinions and understandings that are not necessarily true,” Turky Al Sudairy, head of the government’s Human Rights Commission said in a statement published in Saudi newspapers.

“While we accept that there are some who mistreat (domestic) workers, and this is not acceptable, there are laws that stipulate punishment and the Commission will not hesitate to reveal practices and violations.”

Around a third of Saudi Arabia’s 24 million population are foreign residents, mostly blue-collar workers from Asian countries. Over a million work as housemaids, and reports of abuse are common. Saudi employers often retain their passports.

Sudairy said the authorities had taken stringent measures to regulate the labor market, which he said was subject to abuse by recruitment agencies. He said Saudi Arabia has laws to prevent child labor.

“The efforts being exerted have not finished yet and we cannot claim such a thing,” Sudairy said.

“Cooperation before writing reports would help to make many things clearer and lead to more objectivity and precision, since the (U.S.) report ignored recent developments.”

Click here for an extensive trafficking report (PDF)

As moclippa notes:

Looking at the Tier ranking, Bahrain made Tier 2 between 2003-2004, and has since steadily fallen back, hitting Tier 3 once again in 2007, the first time since 2002.

Recommendations for Bahrain Include:

“The government should enact a comprehensive anti-trafficking law that criminalizes all forms of trafficking in persons and assigns penalties both sufficiently stringent to deter the crime and adequately reflective of the heinous nature of the crime. Bahrain should also ensure that victims are not punished or deported for unlawful acts committed as a result of being trafficked, and should offer protective services to all victims of trafficking, including women coerced into prostitution and both female and male victims of forced labor.”

“Bahrain made no discernible progress in preventing trafficking this year. The government initiated no new campaigns to prevent trafficking, but continued to distribute multilingual brochures on workers’ rights and resources to incoming workers. The government should ensure that recruitment agencies and employers are aware of the rights of foreign workers to prevent their abuse.” (60)

Tier 3 is composed of:

Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Sudan, Bahrain, Iran, Oman, Syria, Burma, Kuwait, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela.

Click here for a full report.