Human Trafficking in the Middle East

 Authors of the article -  Guoda Vdovycte and Marguerite Remy

In 2018 exactly 1887 cases^[1] of human trafficking were reported in the Middle East^[2]. The actual number could be much higher. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, most of the detected victims are adults, while children represent between 5 and 8% of victims. Human trafficking is mainly committed for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labour and exploitative begging in North Africa and the Middle East. Each of these forms of trafficking represented 30% of the detected victims in 2018. Most of the victims are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and two-thirds of the victims for forced labour are female.^[3] The origins of the victims diverge in areas of the Middle East. In the Gulf Cooperation Council countries[4], a large third of detected victims come from the region, another third from South and East Asia and the Pacific while 18% originate from East Africa. Meanwhile, in other Middle Eastern countries^[5], 41% of victims come from East Africa, 23% are from Eastern Europe and Central Asia and an equal proportion from the region itself.^[6]

International instruments

Several international documents exist defining the various forms of human trafficking and providing mechanisms for combating the issue. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, is viewed as the most important one and includes clauses regarding the criminalization of the practice. It is one of the Palermo protocols, which were adopted by the United Nations in 2000 to supplement the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The different forms of human trafficking are defined in the 1930 Forced Labour Convention, which is one of the eight fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organization; the 1926 Slavery Convention; and the 1949 UN Convention for the Suppression of the Trafficking in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution. One of the main human rights instruments, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, also acknowledges and prohibits the various forms of human trafficking.^[7]

Despite the existence of these documents, their implementation is yet to be perfect. For example, the Palermo Protocol provides an extensive view on fighting human trafficking, however, ratifying states do not extend the implementation procedures to fully combat the problem. There is a tendency for the ratifying states to draw focus on very specific issues without seeing it as a wider problem or addressing means of prevention. To effectively solve the problem, countries need to ratify all the meaningful documents together and follow the proposed guidelines leading to solutions. The United Nations also propose an alternative view of human trafficking as a human rights problem instead of merely a criminal act. This appears to be the suggested approach that would allow focusing on ‘preventing, protecting and prosecuting’ effectively.^[8]

The two following sections of this article will focus on examining two cases of human trafficking in the Middle Eastern region.

The Kafala system

A prominent mechanism of human trafficking used in the Middle East, specifically in the Arabian Gulf, is the Kafala system. Originally established during the early 20th century, it was meant to protect foreign workers immigrating to take job vacancies during the emergence of commercial trading and infrastructure building in the region. Nowadays, the legal framework is used to control migrant workers by extending rights of private employers to control a variety of job-related aspects of the employees. This often includes restricting movement outside of the host country and the possibility to change jobs, allowing for wages to be set below the minimum standard and the lack of contract standardization.^[9]

Dubai construction workers having their lunch break in Dubai. Photograph: Piotr Zarobkiewicz (CC)

Due to the contrast of rights given to the employer compared to the migrant employees, the Kafala system is labelled to be a form of modern slavery. Given the fact that the system is mostly implemented as a matter of jurisdiction of the interior ministries of the host countries that do not regulate labour laws, workers are denied access to legal protection. In this way, they become an easy target for work-related exploitation. Additionally, the Middle Eastern countries fail to ratify international agreements that are necessary for migrant labour force protection. Even if a number of laws succeed to be created for that matter, enforcement often does not follow.^[10]

Despite the prevalence of Kafala in the Arabian Gulf, the international attention drawn to it has proven to be a start for reformative measures. Over the years the control of the employer has diminished, which in turn allows workers to have more freedom in making decisions about their employment contracts or private matters without scrutiny of the ‘principal’. For example, Saudi Arabia now allows migrant workers to travel outside of the country’s territory without notifying the employer. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain started providing more flexible working visas.^[11]

Recently, by far the most scrutinized country in the region regarding the Kafala system is Qatar since it is set to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022. Around 30 000 migrant workers are allocated to work in infrastructure, hospitality and stadium creation for the incoming championship. Due to the extreme heat in Qatar and the lack of safe working conditions, a high number of laborers have suffered injuries or died.^[12] Last year, Human Rights Watch released a report after interviewing a sample of workers only to discover that together with not providing sufficient workplace protection, employers fail to pay or withhold salaries. This practice has become more apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic. The payment delays lead to workers having to live on the verge of starvation or in debt. These facts are troubling, especially given the 2017 promises of Qatar to abolish the abusive Kafala system.^[13] However, since the start of the preparation for the World Cup, Qatar has introduced the minimum wage requirements for migrant workers and allowed for more flexible employment alterations for those wishing to switch professions.^[14]

ISIS and human trafficking

The fight against human trafficking is deeply shaped by the political context. When the political structure of a region is shattered in a war context, the options for preventing the recourse to human trafficking are rare, as illustrates the systematic slavery of Yazidis by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq in 2014.

Displaced Yazidi people, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, in 2014. File photograph: Rodi Said/Reuters

In 2014, ISIS fighters invaded the Sinjar region of northern Iraq, which is home to the majority of Yazidis.^[15] Yazidis are an endogamous minority, mostly inhabiting in the Kurdish regions of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Most Yazidis are Kurmanji-speaking, and even if the majority consider themselves ethnically Kurdish, Yazidis are religiously distinct from Iraq’s Sunni Kurdish majority. Based on a strong oral tradition, Yazidism is an ancient faith which associates some Islamic beliefs with elements of the ancient Persian religion called Zoroastrianism. Partly because of this combination of different belief systems, Yazidis are considered infidels by ISIS’s adherents. As ISIS fighters controlled the Iraqi city of Sinjar and surrounding areas in August 2014, they captured the Yazidi population and systematically divided them into three distinct groups: men and boys who had reached puberty; women and children; and boys between approximately 8 and 12.^[16]

If men and boys converted to Islam, they could avoid execution and became ISIS captives. They were transferred to sites where they were forced to work. Yazidi women and girls were deemed property of ISIS and openly considered slaves. Most of them were sold to ISIS fighters in slave markets in Iraq and Syria. In order to circulate photos of the captured females, ISIS fighters used social media websites, such as Telegram. Once sold, Yazidi women and girls were used as sexual slaves and forced to work as domestic servants in the fighters’ homes. Around one-fifth of these females were contained in military-based holding sites, mainly for sexual exploitation purposes. The young children were transferred with their mothers when the latter were sold. Finally, the group of Yazidi boys between 8 and 12 years old were forcibly transferred to training centres and military camps in Iraq and Syria where they were renamed and treated as ISIS recruits, subject to forced training and indoctrination.^[17]

Al-Dayel and Mumford argue that the scale and structural elements of ISIS’s slavery economy is new.^[18] The circumstances in which ISIS acted highlight new issues in the fight against trafficking. While states are best-placed actors to develop and implement an anti-trafficking strategy, such attempts are impaired when governmental authorities have lost control of their territories. This is still a challenge to be resolved to reach an effective prevention of human trafficking in all places and political contexts.

The pathway in the fight against human trafficking

In general, the fight against trafficking in persons mostly relies on the state’s ability to implement legislation, to respect the legal provisions and, if needed, to prosecute human traffickers. States need to ensure that effective judicial mechanisms exist that allow victims to seek legal action. To promote an effective fight against the human trafficking issue and ensure prevention, the international community needs to draw attention to the abuses in order to encourage change and reforms.

^[1] UNODC. (2020). Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, p. 31. UN publications.

^[2] In this article, the Middle East is considered as the countries of Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

^[3] Ibid, p. 171.

[4] Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

^[5] Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Syrian Arab Republic.

^[6] Ibid, p. 172.

^[7] Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2014, August). International instruments concerning the trafficking in persons. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/OnePagers/IntInstrumentsconcerningTraffickingpersons_Aug2014.pdf

^[8] Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2014, August). International instruments concerning the trafficking in persons. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/OnePagers/IntInstrumentsconcerningTraffickingpersons_Aug2014.pdf

^[9] Robinson, K. (2021, March 23) What is the Kafala System? Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system#:~:text=The%20kafala%2C%20or%20sponsorship%2C%20system,well%20as%20Jordan%20and%20Lebanon

^[10] Robinson, K. (2021, March 23) What is the Kafala System? Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system#:~:text=The%20kafala%2C%20or%20sponsorship%2C%20system,well%20as%20Jordan%20and%20Lebanon

^[11] Robinson, K. (2021, March 23) What is the Kafala System? Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system#:~:text=The%20kafala%2C%20or%20sponsorship%2C%20system,well%20as%20Jordan%20and%20Lebanon

^[12] Robinson, K. (2021, March 23) What is the Kafala System? Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system#:~:text=The%20kafala%2C%20or%20sponsorship%2C%20system,well%20as%20Jordan%20and%20Lebanon

^[13]  Human Rights Watch. (2020, August 24). Qatar: Little progress on protecting migrant workers. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/24/qatar-little-progress-protecting-migrant-workers

^[14] Robinson, K. (2021, March 23) What is the Kafala System? Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system#:~:text=The%20kafala%2C%20or%20sponsorship%2C%20system,well%20as%20Jordan%20and%20Lebanon

^[15] UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (UN IICI Syria). (2016). The Yazidi Genocide, p. 103. Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 23, 103. Al-Dayel, N., & Mumford, A. (2020). ISIS and Their Use of Slavery. International Center for Counter-Terrorism. Retrieved from https://icct.nl/publication/isis-and-their-use-of-slavery/.

^[16] UN IICI Syria. (2016). The Yazidi Genocide, p. 104. Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 23, 103. Al-Dayel, N., & Mumford, A. (2020). ISIS and Their Use of Slavery. International Center for Counter-Terrorism. Retrieved from https://icct.nl/publication/isis-and-their-use-of-slavery/.

^[17] UN IICI Syria. (2016). The Yazidi Genocide, pp. 104-109. Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 23, 103. Al-Dayel, N., & Mumford, A. (2020). Al-Dayel, N., & Mumford, A. (2020). ISIS and Their Use of Slavery. International Center for Counter-Terrorism. Retrieved from https://icct.nl/publication/isis-and-their-use-of-slavery/.

^[18] Al-Dayel, N., & Mumford, A. (2020). ISIS and Their Use of Slavery. International Center for Counter-Terrorism. Retrieved from https://icct.nl/publication/isis-and-their-use-of-slavery/.