Some workers face coercion, lack of pay, constraints on their freedom of movement, and sexual exploitation, the ILO said in a report presented at a regional trafficking conference. In many Middle East countries, workers lack any protection of their basic rights.
The ILO emphasized the need to strengthen regional legislation. “The challenge is how to put in place safeguards in both origin and destination countries to prevent the exploitation and abuse of these workers,” said Beate Andrees, head of ILO’s Special Action Program to Combat Forced Labour.
The ILO paid special attention to the visa programs implemented by many Arab states, which require an in-country sponsor to obtain a visa. Migrant workers are often sponsored directly by their employers, and this can lead to an imbalance of power in the employer-employee relationship. If a migrant worker’s visa is rescinded by a sponsor in the UAE, for example, he must leave the country within 30 days, and could face a ban on employment in the country for up to one year, according to the Gulf News, a UAE English daily.
Similar sponsorship programs employed by other Arab nations are “inherently problematic,” according to the ILO. Since workers risk being expelled from the country at the whim of their employer, issues of forced labor, sexual exploitation, and other violations of basic rights, including the illegal seizure of employee passports for supposed safekeeping, are underreported.
Middle Eastern countries host millions of migrant workers: in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, migrant worker populations far outnumber natives. The UN defines a migrant worker as any person working in a country other than his own. The poorest of migrant workers are most often victimized. Laborers and domestic workers are especially vulnerable, the ILO said.
The ILO’s statements came at a conference on human trafficking held in Amman, Jordan. The organization presented a report, “Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East,” that focused on the issue of employee exploitation. The conference itself is focused on the implementation of anti-trafficking commitments through an examination of current policy and legislation.
