Trafficking in Persons Report: 2007 (part 2)

The US Report on Trafficking came out on 12 June. On 13 June, I listed the Tier III countries, a very small group whom the US lists as abject failures in the fight against human trafficking.

To finish summarizing the report:

Tier I, those countries rated excellent, is another small, select group consisting of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, South Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

A few ‘Special Cases,’ are unrated. These include The Bahamas, Barbados, Brunei, Haiti, Iraq, Ireland, Kiribati, Lesotho, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Swaziland, Tunisia, and Turkmenistan. The report explains that no reliable data is available for most of these countries, or they do not have a legitimate government to rate for its efforts to control trafficking. (The report does not explain why Ireland is a Special Case.)

Almost every other country in the world, including the UAE, is Tier II, i.e., acceptable.

The report’s account of the UAE seems fairly accurate:

The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) remains a destination country for men and women trafficked for the purpose of involuntary servitude and commercial sexual exploitation. Women … migrate willingly to the U.A.E. to work as domestic servants, but many face conditions of involuntary servitude such as excessive work hours without pay; verbal, mental, physical, and sexual abuse; and restrictions on movement. Similarly, men … come to the U.A.E. to work in the construction industry, but are often subjected to involuntary servitude and debt bondage as they work to pay off recruitment costs sometimes exceeding two years’ wages. Women … are reportedly trafficked to the U.A.E. for commercial sexual exploitation. Some foreign women were reportedly recruited to work as secretaries, but were trafficked into forced prostitution or domestic servitude. The U.A.E. may also serve as a transit country for women trafficked into forced labor in Oman and Sudan, and men deceived into working involuntarily in Iraq. Although children were previously trafficked from South Asia, Sudan, and Mauritania as child camel jockeys, all identified victims were repatriated at the U.A.E.’s expense.