Bloomberg.com reports a phenomena of sex trafficking in the gulf, mostly in Dubai and has interviewed some of the victims who managed to escape.
Direct link to the story http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=home&sid=amKSCFA_Fm3s
Dubai is currently on a US State Department watch listwatch-list for failing to take "meaningful steps" to end trafficking of women for prostitution and other workers trapped in conditions of slavery.
Incidents and interviwees explained how they were promised high pay for maid, hairdresser and other jobs only to find their contract invalid and their passports confiscated by the employers. After which they get forced into selling their bodies.
There are an estimated 10,000 victims of human trafficking in Dubai, according to the state department's 2007 report. UAE officials claim the figures are overestimated and that they have begun to take action, passing the 1st anti-trafficking law in the middle east.
Kuwait and Qatar are ranked on the same watch-list for cases of invoulantary servitude, not sexual exploitation as in the UAE. Saudi Arabia is on a worse tier ranking than the UAE.
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7 comments:
Bahrain should be on the list. But no, the fleet is there. I think 10,000 prostitutes in Dubai is well below the actual. There's more than that in Bahrain. Heads should be made to roll in the immigration dept. of China and Thailand.
There are a lot of illegal immigrants which is a topic that is not even brought up in the local media! What is going on!
anonymous: Following your comment I looked up the actual state department list I found some information on how they categorize the countries to tiers and such didn't find the actual list though.
however I found this interesting website stating that Bahrain is on the watch list as tier2.
http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/210
People should do their research and together we will do our part to stop these violations of basic human rights.
N: There are so many issues w/ immigration. All these issus are dealt by officials in numbers, it is sad that there is a human face suffering behind it.
While prostitution is an issue in Dubai - as in other Gulf locales, especially Bahrain and Doha - the State Department's Trafficking in Persons report has all Gulf countries BUT the UAE on a tier 3 list - the worst of the worst. Due to measure taken and slow progress made, especially with camel jockeys, the UAE was elevated to a Tier 2 watch list. Might be helpful if journalists reported the truth rather than their own advocated positions.
At the end of the day, human trafficking which often results in people being forced into the sex trade is a vile international criminal enterprise. At least Dubai - unlike its neighbors - is doing something to combat it, including numerous arrests of traffickers in this year alone.
tory: I didn't find a link to the actual list, I got the news from Bloomberg and the report on Bahrain from that site.
Bloomberg claims that Kuwait Qatar and UAE are on the same tier, teh site claims Bahrain is in tier2, Bloomberg mentions that Saudi Arabia is on a worse tier
The Bloomberg article also does mention that Dubai has started a committee to combat the problem and that they have already closed down over 40 clubs that used illegal trafficking.
So apparantly Dubai is doing something about it after the state department warned them.
Regardless, as I said to N, though the governments look at it in terms of numbers... There are human faces behind these numbers.
Hope the public in our countries get educated and start paying attention to human rights.
Further information for those who are interested on the watch list
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=texttrans-english&y=2007&m=June&x=20070612102823eaifas0.9481623
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