by Hani Hazaimeh | JORDAN TIMES

AMMAN — A study prepared by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which was revealed on Tuesday, showed that the highest rates of human trafficking were registered in the Middle East.

The study, which was named “Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East”, was presented by the ILO on Tuesday in Amman at the first-ever tripartite regional conference on human trafficking. The report indicated that some 600,000 migrant workers are subject to forced labour and exploitation.

The study examined the status of migrant workers in four Arab states: Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait and Lebanon.

The findings of the ILO were compiled through 650 one-on-one interviews with migrant workers in the countries, and the results will be discussed during a two-day workshop.

ILO representatives said that the study offers a rare glimpse into the hardships endured by workers, who come from some of the world’s poorest countries, and that it additionally examines the structural barriers in place in the Middle East that affect their quality of life and work.

The meeting, which is involving over 100 representatives from a total of 12 Arab countries, is expected to “meaningfully progress discussions on how to implement international anti-trafficking laws into practice in the Middle East”, a region that has one of the highest concentration of migrant workers in the world, the authors said.

“The region’s labour migration is unique due to its scale and the exponential growth it has witnessed in recent years,” Beate Andrees, head of the ILO’s special action programme to combat forced labour, said. “The challenge is how to properly put in place safeguards, in both origin and destination countries, that prevent the exploitation and abuse of these workers.”

The study outcomes, which were compiled over two years, shed light on the situation of trafficked adult workers in the Middle East, the processes through which they become involved in forced labour and sexual exploitation and the constraints that prevent them from leaving the abuse.

The ILO’s report additionally examines the responses to human trafficking that governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations and other stakeholders have recently put in place. It also provides regional policy makers with recommendations to help them effectively counter the problem.

The study said that the Middle East hosts millions of migrant workers, whose numbers, in some cases, exceed the number of national workers substantially. The report cited Qatar, where 94 per cent of workers are migrants and Saudi Arabia, where the figure exceeds 50 per cent.

In Jordan and Lebanon migrant workers make up a significant part of the workforce, particularly in the construction and domestic work sectors, the study said.

read more here: http://jordantimes.com/human-trafficking-most-common-in-middle-east—-ilo

NOTE BY THE EDITOR: It seems the Muslims in the ‘Middle East’ have forgotten the hadith, where the Prophet, peace be on him, said that “pay the wages before the sweat of the worker is dry”.