Saudis Among Worst Human Traffickers

Just Journalism reports:

Financial Times and Guardian’s Datablog highlight US state department report on human trafficking, placing Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Yemen and Libya in worst category.

As Just Journalism reported last week, the British media has been giving rare coverage to the issue of migrant workers’ rights in Saudi Arabia, following the beheading of an Indonesian maid and the sentencing to death of another. The Indonesian government responded by announcing a moratorium on travel to the country for domestic work.

‘US raps Gulf allies over human trafficking’ by Guy Dinmore for the Financial Times reports on the release of the Trafficking in Persons Report 2011 which puts Saudi Arabia in the lowest category (Tier 3). Tier 3 countries are designated as such if they ‘do not comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.’

Dinmore writes:

‘Washington’s allies in the Gulf have been strongly criticised in the US state department’s annual report on human trafficking for their failure to combat modern slavery, but positive developments are seen under new interim governments in Tunisia and Egypt…

‘Following the report, President Barack Obama, has 90 days to decide whether to impose financial sanctions on Tier Three countries or waive them out of national interest.’

The section of the report covering Saudi Arabia mentions how some migrant workers:

‘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. Recent reports of abuse include the driving of nails into a domestic worker’s body.’