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

Many reports confirm the interlinkages between trafficking, forced
prostitution and forced marriage. In Yemen, the national authorities had to
contend with the problem of young Yemeni girls and women being forced
into fake marriages for sex with men from the Gulf. One official interviewed
spoke of a case that had been referred to INTERPOL, which involved an
18-year-old woman who had been married to a Saudi man and taken to a
hotel for one month, after which she discovered that the man had disappeared.
INTERPOL helped track down the husband in Saudi Arabia and he was
subsequently made to compensate the young victim by giving her a bride
price. 161 One publication on the situation in Iraq explained that Iraqi girls
are increasingly finding themselves in temporary marriages, whereby young
girls are married off on the Friday in exchange for money and divorced by the
following Sunday. 162 This practice is often used to sexually exploit the women
by selling them to other men for sexual services.
3.2.3. Work and life under duress
Whatever the process by which trafficking takes place, the women end up
being exploited sexually for financial gain. Those interviewed underscored
the hardships these women encountered, and their limited options for escape.
The means of coercion discussed below do not apply to all sex workers in
the Middle East but specifically to those who are forced into the trade. Any
woman experiencing one or more of these factors can be considered a victim
of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Box 3.13. A client’s view of coercion
“I think the majority of women are forced to have sex. They are physically
beaten, isolated and locked in the apartments. The clients are usually aware
that the women are forced but are okay with this because they themselves
are sexually deprived.”
Interview with a Nepalese client of sex workers, Kuwait, 30 March 2012.
The very idea of coercion provoked a wide range of responses from key
informants, including clients of sex workers. 163 One client explained that it
was difficult to judge whether the women are coerced, as “we do not talk to
them”. He nevertheless argued: “Most women do it voluntarily. Some might
be forced at first but then they realize they can make money.” A second client
unabashedly stated: “It is none of my business if they are forced or not. I just
161
Interview with an official from the Ministry of Interior of Yemen, Qatar,
17 Jan. 2012.
162
SCEME: Karamatuna, p. 18.
163
Interviews with three Egyptian clients of sex workers, Kuwait, 1 Apr. 2012.
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