2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

withholding of passports and other restrictions
on movement, non-payment of wages, threats,
and physical or sexual abuse. Women from
Yemen, Morocco, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and
Tajikistan were also trafficked into Saudi Arabia for
commercial sexual exploitation; others were reportedly
kidnapped and forced into prostitution after
running away from abusive employers. In addition,
Saudi Arabia is a destination country for Nigerian,
Yemeni, Pakistani, Afghan, Chadian, and Sudanese
children trafficked for involuntary servitude as
forced beggars and as street vendors.
The Government of Saudi Arabia does not fully
comply with the minimum standards for the elimination
of trafficking and is not making significant
efforts to do so. Saudi Arabia is placed on Tier 3
for a third consecutive year. The government failed
to enact a comprehensive criminal anti-trafficking
law, and, despite evidence of widespread trafficking
abuses, did not significantly increase the number
of prosecutions of these crimes committed against
foreign domestic workers. The government similarly
did not take law enforcement action against
trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation in
Saudi Arabia, or take any steps to provide victims
of sex trafficking with protection. Saudi Arabia also
continues to lack a victim identification procedure
to identify and refer victims to protective services.
Saudi Arabia should enact a comprehensive anti-trafficking
law that criminalizes all forms of trafficking
in persons and assigns penalties that are sufficiently
stringent to deter the crime and adequately reflect the
heinous nature of the crime. The government should
also significantly increase criminal prosecutions of
abusive employers, enforce existing criminal laws
that punish employers who abuse foreign workers,
and impose appropriate sentences for such crimes. In
addition, the government should take steps to ensure
that trafficking victims are not detained or punished,
and should institute a formal victim identification
mechanism to distinguish trafficking victims from
among the thousands of workers it deports each year
for immigration violations and other crimes. Saudi
Arabia should similarly extend protection to victims
of sex trafficking, and ensure that their traffickers are
criminally prosecuted.
Prosecution
Saudi Arabia demonstrated insufficient efforts to
punish trafficking crimes over the last year. The
government does not prohibit all forms of trafficking
in persons, but penalizes forced labor through
Articles 229-242 of its Labor Law. Penalties for forced
labor, however, are limited to fines or bans on future
hiring, and as such, are not sufficiently stringent to
deter the crime. Saudi Arabia does not have a law
specifically prohibiting trafficking for commercial
sexual exploitation. This year, the government reported
no criminal investigations, prosecutions, convictions
or sentences for trafficking offenses, despite
reports of widespread abuse of foreign workers and
anecdotal evidence of trafficking for commercial
sexual exploitation. Saudi law states that employers
may not retain the passports of their employees, but
the government does not actively enforce this law.
Source country embassies also report that the government
does not seriously enforce fines or bans on
hiring workers imposed upon abusive employers or
recruitment agencies. Furthermore, police are often
criticized for being unresponsive to requests for help
from foreign workers. In December, the Government
of Saudi Arabia funded an assessment by anti-trafficking
experts for forthcoming law enforcement
training session in the Kingdom. The government
should take significant steps to criminally punish
trafficking for involuntary servitude and commercial
sexual exploitation. In particular, the government
should ensure that traffickers receive adequate prison
sentences for serious abuses rather than administrative
penalties such as fines, bans on future recruitment,
or orders to pay back-wages.
Protection
Saudi Arabia did not take adequate measures to
protect victims of trafficking over the last year.
However, the government does provide trafficking
victims with shelter, access to legal, medical, and
psychological services, and temporary residency,
in some cases. Although the government operates
three shelters for abused domestic workers and
trafficked children, some victims report being further
mistreated in these “remand homes.” For instance,
in November 2006, 25 Nepalese victims who ran
away from their employers claiming physical and
sexual abuse were confined to a room, given insufficient
food and medical treatment, and were not
allowed to contact their families. Some victims also
claim difficulty receiving consular access, accessing
national and international NGO assistance, or receiving
legal or social counseling in their own language.
In addition, Saudi Arabia does not systematically
attempt to identify trafficking victims among
vulnerable people, such as foreign women detained
for running away from their employers or women
arrested for prostitution; as a result, victims of
trafficking are often punished and deported
without being offered protection. Saudi Arabia
offers some victims limited legal alternatives to
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