 |
USTrafficking in Persons Report 2012: Saudi Arabia is a destination country for
men and women subjected to forced labor and to a lesser extent, forced
prostitution. Men and women from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan,
the Philippines, Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and many other countries
voluntarily travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants or other low-skilled
laborers, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary
servitude, including nonpayment of wages, long working hours without rest,
deprivation of food, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and restrictions on
movement such as the withholding of passports or confinement to the workplace.
Although many migrant workers sign contracts delineating their rights, some
report work conditions that are substantially different from those described in
the contract. Other migrant workers never see a contract at all, leaving them
especially vulnerable to forced labor, including debt bondage. Due to Saudi
Arabia’s requirement that foreign workers receive permission from their
employer to get an “exit visa” before they are able to leave the country,
migrant workers report that they are forced to work for months or years beyond
their contract term because their employer will not grant them an exit permit.
Women, primarily from Asian and
African countries, are believed to be forced into prostitution in Saudi Arabia.
Some female domestic workers are reportedly kidnapped and forced into
prostitution after running away from abusive employers. Yemeni, Nigerian,
Pakistani, Afghan, Chadian, and Sudanese children are subjected to forced labor
as beggars and street vendors in Saudi Arabia, facilitated by criminal gangs. A
Saudi study conducted in 2011 reported that most beggars in Saudi Arabia are
Yemenis between the ages of 16 and 25. Some Saudi nationals travel to
destinations including Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and
Bangladesh to solicit prostitution. Some Saudi men used legally contracted
“temporary marriages” in countries such as Egypt, India, Mauritania, Yemen, and
Indonesia as a means by which to sexually exploit young girls and women
overseas.
The Government of Saudi Arabia
does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. The government
continued, in a limited fashion, to prosecute and convict trafficking offenders
under the 2009 anti-trafficking law. The government made modest efforts to
improve its response to the vast human trafficking problem in Saudi Arabia by
training government officials on victim identification and prevention, and
worked to improve victim protection services. However, the government’s policy
of allowing Saudi citizens and residents to sponsor migrant workers and
restrict their freedoms, including exit from the country, continued to preclude
significant progress in dealing with human trafficking. The Saudi government
did not reform its migrant laborer sponsorship system, though it discussed
possible alternatives during the year that would provide protections for
foreign workers and increase government oversight. Domestic workers – the
population most vulnerable to forced labor – remained excluded from general
labor law protections, and employers continued to regularly withhold workers’
passports as a means of keeping them in forced labor, despite this practice
being prohibited by a 2000 Council of Ministers’ decision.
Recommendations
for Saudi Arabia: Reform
the sponsorship system and enforce existing laws to discourage employers from
withholding workers’ passports and restricting workers’ movements, including
arbitrarily denying permission for exit visas, as a means of preventing
trafficking abuses; significantly increase efforts to prosecute, punish, and
stringently sentence traffickers, including abusive employers and those
culpable of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, under the 2009 anti-trafficking
law; institute a formal victim identification mechanism to distinguish
trafficking victims among the thousands of workers deported each year for
immigration violations and other crimes; ensure that victims of trafficking are
not punished for acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, such as
running away from abusive employers; ensure trafficking victims are able to
pursue criminal cases against their employers in practice; continue to improve
victim protection at government-run shelters by transforming them into open
shelters where victims are not locked in; ensure that all victims of
trafficking can seek assistance; enforce labor laws and expand full labor
protections to domestic workers; and continue and expand judicial training and
public awareness campaigns on recognizing cases of human trafficking.
Prosecution
The Government of Saudi Arabia
made limited law enforcement efforts against human trafficking during the
reporting period. The 2009 “Suppression of the Trafficking in Persons Act,”
promulgated by Royal Decree number M/40, defines and prohibits all forms of
human trafficking, prescribing punishments of up to 15 years and fines of up to
the equivalent of $266,667 for violations. Penalties may be increased under
certain circumstances, including trafficking committed by an organized criminal
group or committed against a woman, child, or person with special needs. These
penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed
for other serious crimes. Since the law includes some concepts unrelated to
human trafficking, the government must disaggregate law enforcement activity
under this law to indicate which prosecutions and convictions are for
trafficking. Although the 2009 anti-trafficking law does not address
withholding passports and exit visas as a means of obtaining or maintaining a
person’s forced labor or service, Council of Ministers Decision 166 of 2000
prohibits the practice of withholding workers’ passports as a separate, lesser
offense. The Council of Ministers’ statement accompanying the 2009
anti-trafficking law secures the right of victims to remain in Saudi Arabia
during the investigation and court proceedings, incentivizing their assistance
in prosecutions.
The government reported that it
prosecuted 11 cases of human trafficking, though the government did not report
the details of these cases, and it is unclear if these cases occurred during
the reporting period. During the reporting period, the government achieved only
one conviction under its anti-trafficking law; details of that case were not
provided. There were no prosecutions or convictions of cases involving forced
begging. The government did not report efforts to enforce the Council of
Ministers’ decision prohibiting the confiscation of foreign workers’ passports;
this practice continued to be widespread. During this reporting period, the
government reported efforts to track and collect data on trafficking-related
investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and convictions, yet the government
failed to provide comprehensive law enforcement data. The government also did
not report any investigations, arrests, prosecutions, or sentences of
government officials for trafficking-related complicity. However, according to
media and NGO sources abroad during the reporting period, an Indonesian
domestic worker alleged that a Saudi diplomat working in Germany – her employer
– had subjected her to forced labor and abuse. The victim alleged that she
worked 18-hour days with no holidays, never received wages for her work, did
not have access to her passport, and was physically and mentally abused. During
the reporting period, the government’s inter-ministerial permanent committee to
combat trafficking provided training sessions for law enforcement and judicial
personnel and completed three “train-the-trainer” courses for investigators and
police officers on trafficking indicators.
 |
SAUDI
ARABIA (Tier 3)
|
Protection
Saudi Arabia made limited,
although inconsistent, progress in protecting victims, but its overall efforts
remained inadequate during the reporting period. The government’s annual budget
for calendar year 2012 includes the equivalent of $1 million for the permanent
committee to combat trafficking; however, procedures were not fully implemented
to systematically identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable populations,
and government officials still lack the necessary training on prevention,
identification, and prosecution of trafficking cases. As a result, many victims
of trafficking are likely punished for acts committed as a result of being
trafficked. Under Saudi law, foreign workers may be detained or deported for
running away from their employers. Council of Ministers Decision 244 authorizes
the permanent committee to combat trafficking to exempt trafficking victims from
these punishments, yet victims are often detained or deported without being
identified. Women arrested for prostitution offenses face prosecution and, if
convicted, imprisonment or corporal punishment, even if they are victims of
trafficking; there are no legal protections or policy guidelines that shield
victims from prosecution. Moreover, at least 25 Indonesian domestic workers
remained in judicial proceedings and could be sentenced to death. Some workers
have already been sentenced to death and await execution for various crimes,
including those committed against their Saudi employers after some of the
accused were reportedly subjected to conditions of forced labor.
The 2009 anti-trafficking law
affords victims an explanation of their legal rights in a language they
understand, physical and psychological care, shelter, security, and the ability
to stay in Saudi Arabia to testify in court proceedings. The Saudi media
reported that foreign workers successfully sought help from government
authorities after their sponsors failed to pay their wages or prohibited them
from leaving the country. In one such case, a Saudi sponsor paid an Indonesian
domestic worker the equivalent of $15,200 in back wages after Riyadh police
intervened. In another case, the Hail provincial governor assisted an Indian
shepherd to recover more than the equivalent of $22,500 in unpaid wages from
his Saudi sponsor and facilitated the foreign worker’s repatriation to India.
Despite these positive steps, during the reporting period, many victims still
sought refuge at their embassies, and source countries reported handling
thousands of complaints of unpaid wages, physical or sexual abuse, or poor
working conditions each year. No shelter or services are available to victims
of sex trafficking or male victims of trafficking. The government operated a
center for female runaway domestic workers in Riyadh, some of whom were likely
subjected to physical or sexual abuse by their employers. The Ministry of
Social Affairs Anti-Begging Department also operated shelters for child beggars
in various cities in the country. In previous years, victims of physical and
psychological abuse at these centers reported that they were unlikely to
receive assistance, and some reported long waiting periods before the
conclusion of their cases. Women were not free to leave and experienced
restrictions on communication with family or consular contacts. In smaller
cities in Saudi Arabia with poor access to the government shelter, victims of
trafficking were kept in jails until their cases were resolved; however, during
this reporting period, some trafficking victims in smaller cities were
reportedly transported to shelters in larger cities. During the reporting
period, the government reported providing services and assistance to 1,000
Southeast Asian workers who had been held in conditions of forced labor,
including receiving no wages for work and inadequate housing without food. The
permanent committee facilitated some of these workers’ requests for
repatriation and provided shelter for those who chose to stay until the dispute
was resolved in hopes that their full salaries would be paid.
Victims who have run away from
their employers, overstayed their visas, or otherwise violated the legal terms
of their visas were frequently jailed without being identified as victims. Some
Saudi employers prevented foreign workers from leaving the country by refusing
to permit them to receive exit visas, which resulted in workers working beyond
their contract terms against their will, languishing in detention centers
indefinitely, or paying money to their employers or immigration officials to
let them leave. In previous reporting periods, some police officers assisted
victims by referring them to government shelters. Other police officials,
however, returned foreign workers to their employers, pressured them to drop
cases, or persuaded victims to take monetary compensation in lieu of filing
criminal charges against their employers. Some employers file false
counter-claims against foreign workers for theft, witchcraft, and adultery in
retaliation for workers’ claims of abuse; as a result, in many cases, the
workers rather than the employers were punished, which discouraged workers from
reporting abuse. Few migrants successfully pursued criminal cases against
abusive employers due to lengthy delays in the immigration and justice system.
Prevention
The government made some
progress in preventing human trafficking during the reporting period, but
systemic problems resulting from the sponsorship system regulations remained
largely unaddressed. However, the government discussed possible alternatives to
the sponsorship system that would provide protections for foreign workers and
increase government oversight. In July 2011, the government issued regulations
mandating the formation of new “unified recruitment companies” which provide
that only specified companies will be able to have visas issued for new
expatriate workers and that the companies will be held responsible for the
well-being of laborers, including domestic workers for whom they obtain visas,
and incur penalties and restrictions on importing labor if workers are abused.
At least two unified recruitment companies have been fully licensed and another
13 have been granted preliminary licenses. The Ministry of Labor plans for at
least two companies to operate in each of the country’s 13 provinces. The
companies must begin operations within the next year or risk losing their
licenses. These regulations do not prescribe criminal penalties for abuse of
foreign workers and do not provide increased protections for foreign
trafficking victims. The government also failed in the regulations to address
the widespread practice of employers withholding workers’ passports and
residency permits and the use of exit permits to control workers’ movements.
Domestic workers remain excluded from general labor law protections.
To increase workers’ awareness
of their rights, the Ministry of Labor continued to produce a guidebook
distributed to all migrant workers entering the country in Arabic, English, and
some source country languages; these guidebooks also contain a telephone number
for workers to report abuse. Additionally, Saudi police maintained a 24-hour
emergency anti-trafficking hotline with operators who speak Arabic and English.
The government reportedly broadcast 250 programs and public service
announcements on human trafficking issues, including treatment of foreign
workers, on television and radio during the reporting period. The government
took actions to reduce the demand for prostitution, as Sharia law prohibitions
against prostitution are strictly enforced in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi
government did not report efforts to reduce the demand for child sex tourism by
Saudi nationals abroad.
هناك 3 تعليقات:
شكرا ..)وفى انتظار كل جديد
شكرا ..وفى انتظار كل جديد..))
شكرا لكم .. دائما موقفيين ))
entrümpelung
entrümpelung wien
إرسال تعليق