Human trafficking in the Middle East

Today slavery typically involves women and children being sold into involuntary servitude by the means of violence and deprivation. There is a clear lack of labor protection laws for domestic workers in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. The international community recognizes the trafficking of women and children as a modern form of slavery. Many migrant people, mainly from Asian states, are tricked into coming to the Middle East, where they find themselves in a forced labor situation or working for very low wages. Traffickers trap their victims by coercion, force, or fraud. The forced labor of migrant workers is especially prevalent in the oil-rich Persian Gulf states of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The workers are frequently held to pay off the debt they have accumulated from the costs of travel and housing.[6]

In July 2022, a research body from Washington DC, The Wilson Center published a report stating that Qatar passed legislation to improve conditions for migrant workers, becoming the first Gulf country to allow workers to switch jobs before their contract has expired and the second to set a minimum wage for migrant workers. According to an International Labor Organization's representative, there was progress in worker mobility, in addition to other concerns like occupational safety, access to justice, and representation on labor committees. “Both the resources and watchful eye of the ILO have proven critical to support legislative progress” said the representative.[7]

Trafficking from South Asia to the Middle East is a serious problem, with about 200,000 persons trafficked over 20 years, and 3,400 children over the last 10 years. The International Labor Organization estimates the minimum number of persons in forced labor in the Middle East and North Africa is around 230,000.[8]

Most commonly, but not exclusively, human trafficking is exploitation in the form of forced prostitution or sexual enslavement.[9] State authorities have typically confused sex trafficking with prostitution. Some young impoverished women are attracted to the sex industry because it appears to offer quick and easy money. Traffickers often lure desperate young women with the promise of a better paying job or higher education into a destination country where their documentation and passports are forcibly taken from them as soon as they arrive. These women often find themselves in slave-like situations. Once trafficked into the sex industry, traffickers control the women through physical and psychological means. Prostitution in the Middle East is strictly illegal, along with all sexual activity outside lawful marriage. The religious outlawing of extramarital sex reinforces this trade and consequently further bolsters the demand for prostitution. The issue is exacerbated by the lack of legislative actions taken by states to control prostitution and trafficking.[2]

Even though the most common forms of human trafficking are sexual enslavement and forced labor, these are not the only cases. The type of trafficking that is quite unique to the Middle East is the forced camel jockeying of young boys.[8] Camel racing is a particularly dangerous and violent practice that young boys are forced into against their will. Boys from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are recruited around five years of age to be camel jockeys in Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates. Their parents normally sell them to agents who go around poor districts in these countries and offer to take male children away to the UAE to work. These agents tell parents that the children will earn large sums of money that will be sent home to the families. The parents are typically deceived about the conditions of work. They are led to believe that the children are going to obtain good jobs and will have a better future than if they remain at home. Usually the boys do not know who is taking them abroad or for what purpose. Most of the boys are not aware they will become camel jockeys against their will. When they arrive in the UAE, the children are transferred to azbas, which are camel training complexes in the desert. The children are subject to several forms of abuse during their stay, including punishments such as a lack of food and electric shocks. Lack of food is a common practice because their owners try to maintain their weight at less than 20 kg (44 lbs) for racing purposes. Deaths and injuries of children during racing is another major concern. If children accidentally die during a race they are buried straight away to avoid police investigations of the death. The conditions in the azbas are very restricting. Children are not allowed to leave the camel training complex. They sleep on cardboard boxes, making them very prone to scorpion bites. The children rise at 4:00am to begin exercising the camels. Every day they take the camels for rides until 11:00am. Then they are allowed to rest for two hours before feeding and cleaning the camels. Then they exercise the camels again until nightfall. The children are supposed to be paid for their work but that is almost never the case. The agent usually takes the salary and keeps it without allocating any to the child or his family. Running away is a virtual impossibility for children deployed as camel jockeys since the azbas are usually in remote desert locations. Usually children leave when they become too old or heavy and are no longer considered suitable for camel racing. Other children are sent home because they become seriously injured from racing. Police or immigration rescues are virtually unknown in the azbas.[4]

One of the major forces driving human trafficking in the Middle East is the large influx of foreign migration. Research conducted in 1996 on the routes of illegal migration, smuggling and trafficking concluded that over the period 1992–97, the majority of illegal migrants to Europe had originated from Iraq, China, Pakistan, India or Africa. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) notes trafficking of women from Ghana to Lebanon, Libya and EU countries, women for domestic service from Central and West Africa to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and even voluntary migrations of women from Ethiopia to the Middle East, where working conditions are considered to be virtual slavery.[8] The Middle East is a destination region for men and women trafficked for the purpose of commercial and sexual exploitation. Wealthy Arab men from the Persian Gulf area have been known to rent flats that are ‘furnished with housemaids’ for anywhere from a few hours to a few months. Most of the prostitutes and human trafficking victims tend to be from Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Very few countries in the Middle East are devoid of the commercial sex industry.[2]

Of the many locations where human trafficking is prevalent in the Middle East, most are characterized by poverty. Human trafficking is a market fueled by principles of supply and demand. Therefore, where there is poverty, there is a likely supply to meet the growing demand for sexual entertainment. Economic vulnerability increases the likelihood of women becoming sexual commodities for wealthy Arabs in the Persian Gulf area. Although there are overwhelming social implications, there also seem to be regional financial patterns that perpetuate this trend. Fewer work opportunities for women have led to prostitution as an alternative. For example, in Egypt, women from lower-class backgrounds see that a few nights in prostitution generates more money than one month's work in the public sector. This makes Egypt a popular location for international sex tourism. Despite sex tourism being illegal, Egyptians find it hard to turn away Gulf hard currency due to their crumbling economy. The proliferation of prostitution, sex tourism, and misyar marriages can be understood as the consequence of uneven economic development, further exacerbated by principles of supply and demand. Persian Gulf nationals have the will and the means to pursue sexual entertainment, and poorer Muslim communities can supply services in return for financial security.[2]