Human Trafficking in Saudi Arabia: A Tale of Apathy

by Amanda Kloer · 2009-12-23 07:00:00 UTC
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Every year, the U.S. State Department releases a Trafficking in Persons report which rates countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking.  Each week, I'll be providing a brief glance at human trafficking in one of those countries, based off the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, with my own (often snarky) analysis added.  This is just a snapshot of what's going on in the country.  For more information, you can check out the full text of the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report here.

This Week's Country..... Saudi Arabia

Basic Info

The U.S. State Department ranks Saudi Arabia on Tier 3, meaning that their trafficking situation is so bad, we're willing to insult them and their massive oil reserves with this ranking. Yikes. The Saudi government's general apathy about preventing human trafficking is as transparent as a Saran Wrap burka. Due to the government's "meh" attitude, Saudi Arabia is primarily a destination country for trafficking victims, especially for forced labor. So does Saudi Arabia have the political and economic stability to truly tackle trafficking? If the princes can hoist their soft rumps off their giant piles of money long enough to take a serious look at the issue, maybe.

Who Are the Victims and What Are They Doing?

Since there isn't a huge market for commercial sex in this conservative, Islamic country, the vast majority of victims brought to and through Saudi Arabia are men and women being enslaved in labor industries. Women are trafficked into domestic servitude and both men and women are trafficked into production industries. Children are often forced to beg and sell trinkets on the street. Some women are also sold into contractual marriages against their will. And while labor trafficking is much more common than trafficking into commercial sex, women from Southeast Asia and Africa have been found in Saudi Arabia in situations of forced prostitution.

Where Are They Coming From and Where Are They Going?

Victims come to Saudi Arabia from literally all over the world. Men and women are trafficked in from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and all over Africa. Saudi Arabia's wealth and geography also makes it a center of trafficking in and through the Arab world.

What's Gotta Happen?

Saudi Arabia needs to make trafficking illegal with a solid bit of legislation, something they should have done a long, long time ago. And of course the second part of that is to then use that law to arrest human traffickers and get them off the street. They also need to create stronger public awareness campaigns and improve techniques for identifying victims.

Photo credit: Radio Nederland

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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