Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East, ‎pdf 4.1 MB

CHAPTER 3:
THE PROCESSES OF TRAFFICKING BY
OCCUPATIONAL GROUP
3.1. DOMESTIC WORK
3.1.1. At a glance: Key findings on domestic work
The 143 domestic workers interviewed were from Bangladesh, India,
Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Philippines in Asia, and from Burkina
Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar and Senegal in Africa. They
included both women and men, and their ages ranged from 19 to 55 years.
They came from rural and urban areas, and most identified themselves as
coming from either very poor or poor families. The majority had completed
secondary school. Some of those interviewed had worked in the Middle East
previously, while others had migrated for the first time. The vast majority
stated that they had made the decision themselves to work abroad. At the
time of the interviews, which were held in Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait,
the domestic workers were working, detained or living in temporary shelters
awaiting deportation.
Data were also gathered from a variety of key informants, who shed light on
different facets of the migration process for domestic workers and its pitfalls.
They included government officials from ministries of labour, interior, justice,
foreign affairs and social affairs, as well as government representatives from
countries of origin stationed at the embassies and consulates. Information was
also collected from representatives of workers’ and employers’ organizations,
migrant associations, and local and international NGOs in countries of
origin and destination. The research team also met with employers of
domestic workers, owners of PEAs, lawyers, academics and representatives of
international organizations.
Analysis of the data revealed three main processes of human trafficking for
forced labour of domestic workers (table 3.1). The first process involves
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