2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

S A U D I A R A B I A
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government should consider enacting and enforcing
its draft anti-trafficking law, as well as taking additional
steps to remove children from prostitution
and domestic servitude and to provide for their care.
Prosecution
The government’s anti-trafficking law enforcement
efforts were modest during the reporting period.
Rwandan law does not prohibit all forms of trafficking
in persons, though existing statutes prohibit
slavery, kidnapping, forced prostitution, and
child prostitution, under which traffickers could be
prosecuted. In March 2007, a draft law on suppressing,
prosecuting, and punishing trafficking in
persons was introduced in the Parliament’s Chamber
of Deputies. The status of a draft law intended to
protect street children by criminalizing the actions of
hotels and cinema halls that provide venues for child
prostitution is unknown. The government did not
investigate or prosecute any trafficking cases during
the year. Police did, however, take measures to curb
prostitution by detaining women and children in
prostitution, issuing orders to contain them at home,
and placing them on probation to monitor closely
their activities. At numerous security checkpoints
throughout the country, the National Police inspected
vehicles’ cargo and documentation, questioning
men traveling with children but without an adult
female. Trained police officers investigated suspected
irregularities, including any possible indications of
trafficking; such inspections yielded no reported
cases of trafficking.
Protection
With the exception of its care for former child
combatants, limited information is available on the
government’s efforts to provide protective services
to trafficking victims. The Rwandan Demobilization
and Reintegration Commission (RDRC) continued
to broadcast a weekly radio program in both
Rwanda and eastern Democratic Republic of the
Congo (D.R.C.), reiterating the government’s policy
of accepting all returnees who disarm and renounce
violence, and granting immunity from prosecution
for war crimes to anyone who was under 14 years
of age during the 1994 genocide. As a result, some
Rwandan child combatants voluntarily fled the
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an
armed rebel group operating in eastern D.R.C. and
returned to Rwanda. The RDRC continued operation
of a center for child ex-combatants, which
provided three months of care and education to
returning children; 42 children arrived at the center
during the reporting period. The RDRC worked
with local authorities and an NGO to locate the
children’s families, and social workers sensitized
the families before their child’s return; in 2006, 32
children were reunited with their families.
The Ministry of Education operated “catch-up”
education centers that provided education for over
900 children who had missed all or part of their
primary education due to working. The government
did not encourage victims of trafficking to
participate in investigations and prosecutions of
trafficking, nor did it ensure that child victims of
commercial sexual exploitation were not penalized
for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of
their being trafficked.
Prevention
While the national government’s efforts to prevent
children from being trafficked were modest in
2006, sector governments implemented localized
programs to prevent women and children from
being exploited in prostitution. For example,
officials from Kanombe Sector, located near
Kigali’s airport, reached out to those in commercial
sexual exploitation by establishing and operating
information centers, initiating income generation
programs, and helping them to form small community
organizations that can interact with the sector
government; other sectors are attempting similar
approaches. The Ministry of Labor, with input
from UNICEF and the Ministries of Gender and
Education, drafted a National Plan of Action on
Child Labor in 2005 that is still awaiting approval
by the Cabinet; the plan identifies children in prostitution
and child domestic workers as two forms
of child labor to be addressed. The National Unity
and Reconciliation Commission began conducting
a survey on the impact of genocide on gender-based
violence, including prostitution. In partnership
with UNICEF, the Ministry of Gender and Family
Support — the government’s agency for assisting
children in distress — launched a radio-based
public information campaign on caring for vulnerable
children.
SAUDI ARABIA (Tier 3)
Saudi Arabia is a destination country for men and
women trafficked for the purposes of involuntary
servitude and, to a lesser extent, commercial sexual
exploitation. Men and women from Bangladesh,
India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines,
Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya, and Ethiopia voluntarily
travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants
or other low-skilled laborers, but subsequently
face conditions of involuntary servitude, including