ARAB STATESREPORT2018

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all those individuals and organisations who contributed to the production of this report.
In particular, the authors extend their sincere thanks to the authors of essays featured in the report and all external reviewers.
The sharing of new research, experiences, and informed opinions on current issues across the region are critical in deepening
our understanding of modern slavery in the region.

Recommended citation
Walk Free Foundation (2018). The Global Slavery Index 2018: Arab States Report. Perth, Australia

Further readingThis report is part of a series that builds on the information presented in The Global Slavery Index 2018 to provide an in-depth
look at modern slavery at a regional level. The reports will be available from https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/resources/
downloads/ as they are released. The Global Slavery Index 2018 is now available to download.

Copyright © 2018. The Minderoo Foundation Pty Ltd.
All rights reserved.

Arab States Report

CONTENTS
Spotlight on progress

3

Executive Summary

4

Estimating modern slavery in the Arab States

5

Key findings from the Global Slavery Index

5

Recommendations

7

About the Index

8

Methodology

10

Estimating prevalence

10

Measuring vulnerability

12

Measuring government response

13

Essays14

Modern slavery in the Arab States

20

Prevalence

22

Vulnerability

25

Importing risk: G20 countries in the Arab States region and import ofproducts at-risk of modern slavery

28

Government responses

30

Regional response

34

Regional recommendations

35

Strengthen legislation

35

Improve victim support

36

Strengthen coordination and transparency

36

Address risk factors

37

Eradicate modern slavery from the economy

37

Appendix: Endnotes

38

1

2

Global Slavery Index 2018

ARAB STATESREGION HIGHLIGHTS

Syria

Lebanon

Iraq

Bahrain
KuwaitJordanQatar
United ArabEmirates

Saudi Arabia

Oman

Yemen

high

low

Estimated Number ofPeople in Modern Slavery

Forced labour
percentage

67%

Forced marriage
percentage

33%

57/100B

CC520,000
Regional Proportionof Global Estimate

1%

Average Vulnerability Score

Average Government Response Score

AAA

AA

A

BBB

BB

CCC

C

D

Arab States Report

3

SPOTLIGHT ON PROGRESS
While much remains to be done in the Arab States region to better address all
forms of modern slavery, some positive steps are being taken. Most notably,
after several years of persistent lobbying from international rights groups andworker’s unions, the Government of Qatar has pledged a series of labour
reforms to improve the treatment of migrant workers there.

In 2016, Qatar announced a landmark decision to replace
the kafala system with a contract-based law system aimed
at ensuring greater protection for workers.1 Under the kafala(sponsorship) system, a migrant’s right to work and live inthe host country is dependent on the sponsor, so workers
are unable to enter or leave the country or seek alternative
employment without their sponsor’s written consent.2 In
2017, Qatar ratified Law No.15 (Domestic Workers Law)
granting labour protections for domestic workers. This
new law guarantees domestic workers a maximum 10-hour
workday, a weekly rest day, three weeks of annual leave, an
end-of-service payment, and healthcare benefits.3 Despite
this, the law is still weaker than the country’s general labour
law and does not fully conform to the International Labour

Organization (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention.4 The
government has also announced its intention to introduce
a minimum wage rate for all workers and undertake therenewal of residence permits directly with migrant workers
in effort to replace the kafala system. Labour Dispute
Resolution Committees established by Law No. 13 of 2017
will also be operationalised to offer effective and timely
remedies to workers’ grievances.5 The government had
also taken steps to reimburse the recruitment fees paidby migrant workers constructing the World Cup stadiums
and to cover the fees of future constructions workers, amove that will see £3.6 million return to, or remain in, thehands of migrant workers.6 In early September 2018, thegovernment removed the requirement for migrant workers
to obtain an exit visa to be able to leave Qatar, allowing
most migrant workers to now be able to leave the country
without seeking their employer’s permission.7 This doesn’t
extend to domestic workers, however, the government iscurrently working with the ILO to grant this group of workers
the same rights.

4

Global Slavery Index 2018EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Slavery has a long history in the Middle East. Dating back to the emergenceof the first civilisation, slaves were named in the Code of Hammurabi as
one of three social groups that comprised Mesopotamian society. Studies
of archives documenting the activities of businessmen and private families
that date back thousands of years reveal the central role played by slaves
in ancient economies. Along with houses, slaves were the most importantpurchase made by families. They were used as a guarantee to secureloans, were traded or sold as property, and were often mentioned in legal
documents relating to dowries or division of property.8 They were also often
obtained through war, and this connection between conflict and slavery
carries through to the present.

In a 2015 report with the International Organization for
Migration (IOM), we noted the two migration crises affecting
the Arab States: on the one hand, the unprecedented
movement of people throughout the region in responseto the rise of Islamic extremism, sectarian conflict, andunrelenting hardships, and, on the other, the large numberof migrant workers from South Asia, South-East Asia, and
Sub-Saharan Africa who are highly vulnerable to modern
slavery and exploitation. 9 We stated then that whileinternational headlines focused on the “protracted regional
crisis….the exploitation and trafficking of migrant workers
in the region continues unabated.” In the intervening years,
little has changed.
The Arab States are currently both the source and recipientof the largest numbers of refugees and internally displaced
people globally. As the region experiences conflict andresulting displacement – and given its position at thejunction of migratory paths for Afghans, Sudanese, andSomalis fleeing conflicts in their homelands – vulnerability
to modern slavery in the Arab States has sharply increased.
An estimated 5.7 million refugees originated in the region
since mid-2016 and 12 million people were displacedinternally in Middle Eastern countries.10 This displacement,
accompanied by severe economic decline, widespread
violence and psychological distress, collapse of essential
public services in many districts, and weak labour laws has
contributed towards the vulnerability of refugees, internallydisplaced persons, minority groups, and ordinary citizens
to trafficking and exploitation.
In addition to the high number of refugees and internallydisplaced persons, this is a region that hosts 17.6 million
migrant workers,11 representing more than one-tenth of all
migrant workers in the world. This includes an estimated
2.4 million domestic workers, which is one of the mostvulnerable groups of workers due to the private nature of
their workplace in a family home and the limited rights they
have. The exploitation of migrant workers, particularly inthe construction and services sectors, is widely reported
across the region. Migrant workers are subject to practices
that may amount to forced labour including extortionate
recruitment fees, illegal confiscation of identity documents,
withholding and non-payment of salaries, hazardous
working conditions, unhygienic living conditions, unlawfully
excessive work hours performed under the threat ofdeportation, and physical and sexual abuse.12 Migrant
workers accept high interest loans in their countries of origin
to afford the exorbitant and often illegal recruitment fees
they are coerced into paying.13 Systematic under-, delayed-,
and non-payment of migrant worker wages across the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, coupled with growing
debt at home, increases workers’ dependence on theiremployment and reduces confidence to leave exploitative
jobs or demand better working conditions.

Arab States Report

5

Estimating modern slavery in the
Arab States

Key findings from the Global
Slavery Index

In 2017, Walk Free Foundation (WFF) and the International
Labour Organization (ILO), together with the International
Organization for Migration (IOM), produced the Global
Estimates of Modern Slavery, estimating that 40.3 million
people were living in modern slavery on any given day in2016. Of this number, an estimated 520,000 men, women,
and children were living in modern slavery in the ArabStates. Although these are the most reliable estimatesof modern slavery to date, they should be interpreted
cautiously and considered very conservative, given thegaps and limitations of data generally and for this regionin particular.

In the Arab States region, there are two main trends thatarise from an analysis of the regional and national estimatesof prevalence, measures of vulnerability, and assessmentof government responses.
First, the countries with the highest prevalence ofmodern slavery in the region are all severely affectedby protracted or recent conflicts. Within the region,
Syria, Iraq, and Yemen had both the highest prevalence ofmodern slavery and the highest absolute number of victims,
accounting for 76 percent of victims in the region.

The role that conflict plays in compounding vulnerability toslavery in both the short and long term is widely recognised
The current Global Estimates of Modern Slavery do not
and is reflected in our assessment ofcover all forms of modern slavery; forms
vulnerability across five dimensions –such as trafficking for the purposes ofgovernance issues, nourishment andThe
ArabStatesistheorgan removal, child soldiers, or childsecond most vulnerable access, inequality, disenfranchised groups,
marriage cannot be adequately measured
and effects of conflict – which suggest a far
at this stage. In the Arab States, efforts toof the five regions.
higher risk of modern slavery in the Arabproduce accurate estimates of modern
States than is evident in the prevalenceslavery were hampered by substantial
data. The Arab States is the second mostgaps in the available data, which include lack of data fromvulnerable of the five regions (57 percent). The region
countries in conflict, on forced marriage, and on forced
performed relatively well on the nourishment and accesslabour experiences of migrant workers in the region.
dimension of the vulnerability model but performed
It is typically not possible to survey in countries that are
relatively poorly on the governance and effects of conflictexperiencing profound and current conflict, such as Syria,
dimensions. The regional score in the conflict dimension
Iraq, and Yemen, and data from these states are likely
hides diversity among countries within the region, with14
to understate the problem. Of the two national surveys
Yemen, Syria, and Iraq scoring much higher than others.
conducted in the region, none was in a GCC country, they
The regional average on measures of inequality points
were conducted only in Arabic (which most migrants in theto slightly higher vulnerability than the global average on
region do not speak), and they did not capture people inthis dimension and, again, there is a great deal of diversity
work or refugee camps. Taken together, these gaps point towithin the region, with scores ranging from a low of 25
a significant underestimate of the extent of modern slavery
percent in the UAE to a high of 65 percent in Iraq.
in this region.
Countries with high vulnerability due to effects of conflict
generally have higher vulnerability scores across theremaining four dimensions. This is not surprising given
the disruption to, and often complete dismantling of, therule of law, as well as damage to critical infrastructure anddiminished access to education, health care, and foodand water as a result of conflict. Across all dimensionsof vulnerability, the highest score was found in Syria (92percent). Similarly, WFF’s government response data
highlights the disruption caused by conflict to government
functions. Due to the ongoing conflict and extreme
disruption to government functioning, Iraq, Syria, andYemen were excluded from the government response
assessment this year.

6

Global Slavery Index 2018

Second, while prevalence of modern slavery in themost GCC countries. Although recent moves to address
Arab States region, and particularly the GCC countries,
gender equality for Saudi women have been deservedly
appears low due to significant gaps in data, there is alauded, it is unlikely that female domestic workers will see
large body of evidence pointing to high levels of forced
a similar improvement in their rights for some time.
labour among migrant worker populations that is not
Other countries in the region, such as Jordan and Lebanon,
matched by an adequate level of action. Government
have put in place some protections for migrant populations
responses to modern slavery in the Arab States were often
but struggle to deal with ongoing conflict in Syria andcharacterised by inadequate victim protection and a weak
Yemen and the flow of people fleeing these crises. Statecriminal justice response. The region scores an average
actors and international organisations continue to grapple
CCC rating on government response. When correlatedwith the enormous logistical and operational challenges ofagainst GDP (PPP) per capita, the GCC member countries,
providing support to tens of millions of people – 22.2 million
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the Unitedin Yemen16 and 13.1 million in Syria17 – requiring humanitarian
Arab Emirates all stand out as taking relatively limited action
assistance in the region. Looking elsewhere, there should
despite the size of the problem and resources they have at
be serious concern about the safety and services available
their disposal to address it. These more stable governmentsin the Arab States region, which might be
to current and future trafficking victims in
expected to act, have taken only minimal
Iraq and the potential for the post-conflictsteps to protect the rights and safety ofphase to exacerbate human trafficking
22.2 million people inthe millions of migrant workers who makeYemen and 13.1 million amid intensifying ethnic sectarian tension,up their construction and service sectors.
widespread presence of militias in retaken
in Syria – all requiring
However, Qatar has, notably, pledged avillages, rising gang violence, gaps in thehumanitarian assistance tracing of people on the move, widespreadseries of labour reforms to improve thetreatment of migrant workers, includingin the region.
lack of identification documents potentiallyreplacing the kafala system with a contractleading to statelessness, and rejection frombased law system, 15 granting labour
communities. These conditions, previously
protections for domestic workers through ratification
described as creating “a perfect storm” for exacerbatingof a Domestic Workers Law, announcing an intention tovulnerability for many in the region, have worsened.
introduce a minimum wage rate for all workers, moving toSome progress has been made by governments and civil
reimburse the recruitment fees paid by migrant workers
society actors in efforts to protect and assist victims of
constructing the World Cup stadiums and to cover the feesof future construction workers, and, most recently, removing
trafficking and exploited migrants despite the enormous
the requirement for most migrant workers to obtain an exit
challenge of operating in a region where conflict has
permit in order to leave the country.
weakened the rule of law, aggravated economic crises,
compromised physical safety and security, and fuelled
The UAE took the most steps to respond to modern slavery,risky migration and displacement of millions of people.
achieving the highest (B) rating within the region while
Countries in the region continue to show generosity in
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia achieved the lowest (CC) ratings.
allowing millions of displaced people and refugees toEven a seemingly strong national response is underminedremain, despite growing unease from local populations.
where there are subgroups of people, whether citizens or
However, a great deal more is required to ensure that
not, who suffer high levels of discrimination, as they aremodern slavery is tackled at all levels – from countering the
likely to be “left behind” where responses to slavery are
persisting patriarchal and xenophobic attitudes that allow
concerned. This can be linked to a lack of legal status in amodern slavery to thrive in the Arab States, to ensuring thatcountry; for example, women in Saudi Arabia or domesticchanges in law are enforced and perpetrators are tried.
workers who fall outside the protection of labour laws inArab States Report

7

Recommendations›› Wealthy countries in the region with greater
capacity must do more to address modern slavery.
The government of Qatar has made moves in theright direction and sustained progress on migrant
protections and victim support is urged. Bahrain,
Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have vast
economic resources at their disposal to actively
combat modern slavery within their borders andacross the region and now must demonstrate thepolitical will to do so.
›› Leadership from governments is needed to prioritise
the prevention of all forms of modern slavery acrossthe region and ensure that this leads to direct action.
This should include governments reporting annuallyand publicly on the steps they are taking to end
modern slavery. This should include reporting from all
relevant departments and ministries – interior, foreign
affairs, labour, health, and justice.
›› Governments must address pervasive discrimination
against migrants and women, which creates andexacerbates vulnerability to modern slavery. Thisshould begin by generating public awareness that
discriminatory and exploitative actions will be publicly
addressed. Utilise the media and the criminal justicesector to call out individuals and companies fordiscriminatory and exploitative treatment, and fineor convict perpetrators for non-compliance.

›› Governments must address lack of protection inlabour law of migrant workers and particularly highrisk groups such as domestic workers. This must
include the ratification and implementation of relevantinternational conventions and instituting equal rights
and protections for migrant workers at a national level,
including the freedom to leave or transfer jobs andto exit the country without employer consent. It mustalso include the regulation of recruitment agencies
nationally to ensure recruitment meets ethicalstandards and, where it does not, withdrawal of thepracticing licences of recruitment agencies.
›› Governments must improve identification of victims
across the region. As a first step, governments mustensure that law enforcement personnel prioritise
victim protection and referral to services instead ofdetention for absconding.
›› Governments should focus greater attention on theimpact of conflict, which exacerbates vulnerability
to slavery. This includes areas in which the conflictis active, as well as neighbouring areas which aredealing with the flow on effect, such as is the casein Lebanon and Jordan. In order to prevent further
exacerbating these risks, GCC countries shouldallocate and increase direct funding to organisations(CSOs, INGOs, UN) providing targeted anti-trafficking
services to vulnerable groups and identified victims.
Further, governments across the region should
repeatedly and forcefully condemn the practices ofterrorist and militia groups, particularly those engaged
in the enslavement and sale of women and girls.

8

Global Slavery Index 2018

ABOUT THE INDEXWalk Free Foundation
Modern slavery is a complex and often hidden crime thatcrosses borders, sectors, and jurisdictions. The Walk Free
Foundation believes that a strong multifaceted approachis needed to end modern slavery. This includes building arobust knowledge base to inform action, driving legislativechange in key countries and harnessing the power ofbusinesses and faiths. Through a combination of direct
implementation, grassroots community engagement, andworking in partnership with faiths, businesses, academics,
NGOs, and governments around the world, the Walk Free
Foundation believes we can end modern slavery.
The Walk Free Foundation provides the Secretariat for theBali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons
and Related Transnational Crime, and champions businesssector engagement in this regional program. It is also
advocating strongly for all leading global economies toenact laws to ensure all organisations are held accountable
for taking proactive steps to remove modern slavery fromtheir supply chains.

The Walk Free Foundation’s Global Slavery Index has
developed world leading research to provide measurementof the size and scale of modern slavery, as well as assesscountry-level vulnerability and governmental responses.
Together with the International Labour Organization (ILO)
and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), theWalk Free Foundation developed the joint Global Estimatesof Modern Slavery.
Alongside this, the Global Freedom Network is working tocatalyse world faiths in the fight against modern slavery.
The Walk Free Foundation is also scaling effective antislavery responses in partnership with the Freedom Fundand seed funded the global activist movement, Freedom
United, whose community of eight million supporters
are campaigning for change. The Walk Free Foundation
continues to work with faiths, governments and NGOs
throughout the world to agitate for change and support
initiatives dedicated to the eradication of modern slavery
in all its forms.

Arab States Report

About modern slavery

What is modern slavery?

Modern slavery is a hidden crime that affects every country
in the world. In the period between this Index and the last
(published in 2016), modern slavery was found in manyindustries including garment manufacturing, mining, andagriculture, and in many contexts, from private homes tosettlements for internally displaced people and refugees.
Instances have been identified in Thai fishing, coal mining
in North Korea, in the homes of diplomats in Australia, carwash stations in the United Kingdom, cocoa agriculture in
Côte d’Ivoire, and cattle ranching in Brazil, just to name afew examples.

FIGURE 1
Modern slavery is an umbrella term

DERN SLAVERY
MO
Trafficking for labourand sexual exploitation

Forced labour

Forced labour
as a result offorced marriage

Human
trafficking(cross border andwithin a country)

Slavery andslavery like practices(including forced
marriage)9

Trafficking for slavery
and slavery likepractices

Terminology
Countries use differing terminologies to describe modern
forms of slavery. This includes how they describe slavery
itself, but also other concepts such as human trafficking,forced labour, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage,
and the sale and exploitation of children.
In this report, modern slavery is used as an umbrella termthat focuses attention on the commonalities across theseconcepts. Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation thata person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence,
coercion, abuse of power, or deception.
Refer to Appendix 1 in the 2018 Global Slavery
Index for full terminology, available for download atwww.globalslaveryindex.org.

Modern slavery impacts on all of us, from the food we
consume to the goods we purchase. It is everyone’s
responsibility to address and eliminate this crime
everywhere it occurs.
Nearly every country in the world has committed toeradicate modern slavery through their national legislationand policies. Governments have a central role to playby enacting legislation, providing safety nets to their
populations, and pursuing criminals who participate inthis heinous crime. As no single actor can address allthese challenges, governments need the support andengagement of the private sector, civil society, and thecommunity at large.

The Index
The Global Slavery Index is a tool for citizens, non-governmentorganisations (NGOs), businesses, and governments tounderstand the size of the problem, existing responses, andcontributing factors so that they can advocate for and build
sound policies that will eradicate modern slavery.
All supporting data tables and methodology are available
to download from the Global Slavery Index website:www.globalslaveryindex.org.

10

Global Slavery Index 2018

METHODOLOGY
Estimating prevalence
In 2017, the inaugural Global Estimates of Modern Slavery
were produced by the ILO and the Walk Free Foundationin partnership with IOM.18 The regional estimates produced
through this collaboration form the starting point for thenational level estimates presented here for 167 countries.
These national estimates were calculated19 using individualand country-level risk factors of modern slavery. The
analysis draws on data from nationally representative
surveys implemented through the Gallup World Poll,
including a module on modern slavery in 48 countries,
and data from the Global Slavery Index Vulnerability Model.

The final set of risk factors were selected from an
exhaustive list of variables to optimally predict confirmed
cases of forced labour and forced marriage. The model wasthen used to generate average predicted probabilities ofmodern slavery by country. The regional totals in the 2017
Global Estimate were then apportioned based on eachcountry’s average predicted probability of modern slavery.
A final calculation accounting for state imposed forced
labour was performed to reach the final estimatedprevalence of all forms of modern slavery.
A detailed description of the methodology is set out inAppendix 2: Part B of the Global Slavery Index, available
for download at www.globalslaveryindex.org.

Interviewer for Gallup conducting
an interview in Nepal.
Photo credit: Gallup.

Arab States Report

11

FIGURE 2
Estimating the prevalence of slavery at the national-level1/

Individual and country-level risk factors wereidentified and then used to build a model thatpredicts modern slavery. This drew on data fromthe Global Slavery Index Vulnerability Model andnationally representative surveys.

AFRICA

2/

Individual predictions were aggregated into
country-level risk scores.

40.3m
EUROPEAMERICAS

ASIA PACIFIC

ARAB STATES

3/

 egional-level population estimates of modernRslavery from the 2017 Global Estimate wereallocated to individual countries in the region,
proportionate to each country’s relative risk.

4/

 he number of victims was then estimated byT
applying the country prevalence estimate topopulation data for each country and estimates ofstate imposed forced labour added to arrive at the
final estimate of all forms of modern slavery.

12

Global Slavery Index 2018

Measuring vulnerability
The Global Slavery Index Vulnerability Model is built on
statistical testing and processes to identify the factorsthat explain or predict the prevalence of modern slavery.
The 2018 Vulnerability Model provides a risk score for 167
countries based on an analysis of data covering 23 risk
variables across five major dimensions.
Refer to Appendix 2: Part A in the Global Slavery Index,
available for download at www.globalslaveryindex.org.
FIGURE 3
Vulnerability Model 2018

01 Governance Issues
Political Instability,
GSI Government Response,
Women’s Physical Security,
Political Rights, Regulatory
Quality, Disabled Rights,
Weapons Access

02 Lack of Basic Needs

05 Effects of Conflict
Impact of Terrorism,
Internal Conflicts Fought,
Internally Displaced
Persons
Vulnerability
Score

04 DisenfranchisedGroups
Acceptance of Immigrants,
Acceptance of Minorities,
Same Sex Rights

Undernourishment,
Social Safety Net,
Ability to Borrow Money,
Tuberculosis, Accessto Clean Water,
Cell Phone Users

03 Inequality
Ability to Obtain
Emergency Funds, Violent
Crime, Gini Coefficient,
Confidence in the
Judicial System

Arab States Report

13

Measuring government response
The Government Response Index provides a comparative
assessment of the legal, policy, and programmatic actions
that 181 governments are taking to respond to modern
slavery. This is based on data collected on 104 indicatorsthat are relevant to understanding how each governmentis tracking towards achieving five milestones:
1 / Survivors of slavery are identified and supported to exit
and remain out of slavery.
2 / Criminal justice mechanisms function effectively
to prevent modern slavery.

3 / Coordination occurs at the national and regional
level, and governments are held to account for their
response.
4 / Risk factors such as attitudes, social systems, andinstitutions that enable modern slavery are addressed.
5 / Government and business stop sourcing goods andservices produced by forced labour.
Refer to Appendix 2: Part C in the Global Slavery Index,
available for download at www.globalslaveryindex.org.

FIGURE 4
Government Response Index 2018

Milestone 01
Identify andsupport survivors

Milestone 05
Clean upgovernmentand businesssupply chains

Milestone 02
Establish effective
criminal justicemechanisms

Government
Response Index

Milestone 04
Address risk
factors

Milestone 03
Strengthen
coordination andhold governments
to account14

Global Slavery Index 2018

PRACTICAL AND FAIR LABOUR SOLUTIONSFOR THE MIDDLE EASTJames Sinclair | International lawyer and co-founder of FSI Worldwide

The crowded employment migration corridors that link South
Asia and East Africa with the Gulf Co-Operation Council (GCC)
countries are notoriously beset by bonded and forced labour
abuses. The problems are well understood, but tangible
solutions have been difficult to identify. This is because of the
myriad, interlinking tiers of corruption, vested interests and poorlaw enforcement. However, real advances are being made byprogressive organisations who are keen to demonstrate thebenefits of best labour practice and who embrace innovative
collaboration between key stakeholders.

However, we must not underestimate the scale of thetask before us; it is nothing less than the retooling of thecommercial ecosystems that currently support illegal andunethical working practices.
The change needs to start with a granular understanding of
the reality of labour exploitation. At FSI we own our entire
ethical recruitment infrastructure, down to the village level.
We are the first handshake for a job-seeker and we staywith them all the way through their working journey, fromtraining, deployment, welfare, payroll and management.
In so doing, we can guarantee to employers that their staff
are trained, motivated and happy. This produces significant
productivity and quality benefits for the employer.
However, we are not naïve to the current commercial
reality, which is that many contractors currently pay little ornothing for lower-skilled migrant worker recruitment andsome benefit from large kickbacks paid by recruiters. How
can we convince them away from their old commercial
models and their embedded supplier relationships?

The truth is that appeals to ethics, quality and productivity
have not succeeded in driving significant demand for fairlabour services. We need a more integrated approach. One
that recognises the need for a level commercial playing
field and the importance of integrated, collaborative
engagement between governments and contractors at alllevels of the supply chain.
Key to unlocking significant demand for fair labour services
will be the use of technology and innovative approaches
to peripheral services such as banking and insurance. FSI
is currently in the final stages of concluding agreementswith a progressive company in the GCC to provide
several thousand fair labour workers onto a project. Theiremployment contracts and other key documents will beheld on a secure but auditable central system and their
payroll will be executed via auditable mobile banking
apps. The company’s insurance regime will be significantly
cheaper to reflect their reduced risk profile. This alone
offsets the marginal increase in costs to facilitate the fairArab States Reportlabour model. The insurance underwriting world is rapidly
evolving its labour risk protocols. Just as it did with healthand safety regulations, labour insurance regulations andclaims enforcement will play a major role in future corporate
governance. Progressive companies understand this andare keen to ensure they are ahead of the curve.
FSI has also held discussions with various governments
to try and evolve procurement procedures to require theintroduction of transparency technology and fair labour
principles as a pre-contractual requirement for government
contractors. Such changes will take time to negotiate but
it is clear that the direction of travel is towards greatertransparency, accountability and law enforcement.
The increasing incidence of strategic litigation in the homejurisdictions of multinationals operating in the GCC isgoing to bring ever greater pressure to bear on companies
employing lower-skilled migrant workers from Asia andAfrica. In the event of a lawsuit, they will be required todemonstrate effective control measures to prevent illegal
labour exploitation within their supply chains.

15

By embracing cost-effective but demonstrably ethicaland compliant supply chain practices now, companies
can insure themselves against suit whilst also gaining acompetitive advantage over their ‘old model’ competitors.
Appeals to ethical concerns alone have not significantly
changed corporate behaviour. However, lower insurance
costs, better project outcomes, improved marketplace
reputation and the knowledge that the lawyers will leave
you alone, are proving to be persuasive arguments.
Ultimately, if we are to solve the problem of illegal andunethical exploitation of lower skilled workers, it is goingto require an integrated and collaborative approach. It isalso going to require innovation and leadership. Thosecompanies who are prepared to take the first steps in thisarea should be applauded and supported. Those who
remain wedded to the practices of the past will increasingly
find that the tide of technology, law and market sentimentis against them.
If you would like to know more about the work of FSI, pleasecontact us at www.fsi-worldwide.com.

New Delhi, India, 29 September 2016.
Indian workers from the eastern stateof Bihar gather in a hotel in New Delhi,
after they were repatriated by the Indian
government from Saudi Arabia. They
initially left India to earn money to sendback to their families, but have returned
with only harrowing tales after an oil priceslump threw the economy into turmoil,
leaving thousands of poor migrant labourers
stranded. Migrant workers from South
Asia working in Gulf Cooperation Council
countries can face situations of debt
bondage, where they pay exorbitant fees torecruitment agencies and are forced to work
for little or no pay until this debt is repaid.
While working they can also experience pooror dangerous living and working conditions,have their passports withheld, and are
subject to threats of and actual violence.
Photo credit: Money Sharma/AFP/
Getty Images.

16

Global Slavery Index 2018REPOSITIONING THE VALUE OF DOMESTICWORK IN LEBANON ONE EMPLOYERWORKER RELATIONSHIP AT A TIME
Olivia Grace Boueri | Program Coordinator, Equip-Center for Employers of Domestic Workers, Beirut, Lebanon“But if I give her a day off, she will get pregnant or run away!” is areaction Equip Center for Employers of Domestic Workers hears
more often than not. It should be expected in Lebanon, wherea staggering 75% of migrant domestic workers (MDWs), women
hired from various African and Asian countries to live and work
as “nannies” or “maids” in private households, are not given an
independent day off.

In a country with an estimated 250,000 MDWs, that
number quickly becomes alarming. And it doesn’t stop
there. Detrimental and mainstream employer practices
extend beyond not giving the “help” an independent day
off. It is reported that 30% of employers lock their “maid”
inside their homes, 40% deny their “girl” access to a phone,
90% confiscate their legal and travel documents, such as
passports, 60% of employers deny their “Sri Lanki” sufficient
food, and an estimated 60% do not pay or underpay their“helpers”. (“Girl”, “the one at mine”, “the girl who helps”
and the “Sri Lanki” are common terms used to refer todomestic workers, terms that reveal the possessive andderogatory language surrounding domestic work andthe misconception domestic work is excluded from theprofessional sphere of “employment”).
The United Nations and International Labor Organization
constitute these working conditions as modern day slavery.
Yet for Lebanese employers, socialised under the kafalasystem (an informal visa sponsorship system that ties
workers to their employers with restrictive immigration
rules), these practices are not only normative but, by most,are considered good measures to safeguard employment
relationships.

Two workers are dying in Lebanon each week (fromfailed escape attempts, suicide, natural causes or murder)
a signifier that these “good measures” are ending inanything but good. And if the employment relationshipdoesn’t end because of death, there’s a high likelihood it
may end in the worker ‘running away’ or if she’s able, toterminate the contract legally. In spite of the high rate offailed relationships, the demand for cheap labor in Lebanon
is only projected to increase and employer mentalities
projected to remain the same – detrimental and benefitting
neither employer nor worker.
Equip-Center, launched in November 2016, seeks to change
this status quo and radically alter how Lebanon recruits andemploys live-in domestic workers. In its one and a half yearsof operation, Equip has engaged more than 160 employers
into at least one of its six needs-based services all designed
to improve and professional employer-worker relationships.
Employers seeking a solution on how to build positive andprofessional employment relationships with the worker
they employ can enroll into (1) Getting Started (ethicalrecruitment via direct-hire or an agency), (2) Airport
Welcome (a comprehensive integration and onboarding
program), (3) Language Learning (to boost worker’s

Arab States Reportcommunication abilities to improve trust and reduce
frustrations, (4) First Aid (vocational training to empower
workers and reassure employers with young or elderly),(5) Organised Outings (fun day off programs for workers
who do not have access to an independent day off), (6)Mediation (employer-worker or employer-agency dispute
resolution), and eventually enroll into ProfessionalisingChild Care, Professionalising Elderly Care, Hygiene and
Safety in the Kitchen, and Managing Documents.
While some services, such as First Aid and Getting Started
attract the widest range of employers, others such as theOrganised Outings and Airport Welcome attract fewer
clients, a reminder that Equip’s concept is progressive andchallenges almost 50 decades of behavior and thinking, afeat not all employers are receptive to.
“Equip will never succeed,” said Fady, a client who enrolled
Zeny, the Filipina worker he employs, into a First Aid training
and one Organised Outing program before droppingout. “As long as we are paying thousands of dollars inrecruitment fees to the agencies, we will never be open
to give her a day off, or a phone or anything that could risk
her running away”.

17

Others, still wary of Equip, are willing to test out its merits.
“After two failed employment relationships, I had to grapple
with maybe I was doing something wrong. That’s why I
called (Equip).” said Sara, a mother of two and recent
employer of Tegest, a worker from Ethiopia. “All theseconcepts are new, you have to realise it’s scary for us(employers) but since my previous relationships failed, I
thought, ‘why not test this out’.”And for others, Equip couldn’t have come fast enough.
“Equip is exactly what we need in Lebanon,” said Tamara,
who enrolls the person she employs into Organised Outings
and Getting Started. “It opened my eyes to the brilliant factthat I am an employer and my help is an employee and weboth have rights and responsibilities.”
Exchanging normalised abuse for rights-based employment
practices will not happen overnight or even in a generation.
Yet, gradually, one client at a time, Equip-Center raises
awareness on the value of domestic work as a profession.

Beirut, Lebanon, 28 April, 2013
Foreign nationals working as domestic workers
take part in a parade to mark Labour Day.
Many migrant domestic workers experience
forced labour and sexual exploitation whileworking as “nannies” or “maids” in Beirut.
There are reports that significant numbersof domestic workers are not given a dayoff, while others are locked in their homes,
denied access to a phone, have their passports
withheld, receive little or no payment, or
experience violence and sexual assault.
Photo credit: /AFP/Getty Images.

18

Global Slavery Index 2018

CHILD MARRIAGE AMONG SYRIANREFUGEES IN LEBANON
Gabriella Nassif | Researcher at the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab WorldIn 2016, the United Nations estimated nearly 13.5 million
Syrians were in need of humanitarian assistance. Neighbouring
countries such as Jordan and Lebanon are home to nearly
half of the estimated 5 million Syrians living as refugees
outside of Syria. In both countries, the continued influx ofrefugees is putting major pressure on an already weakened
national system and humanitarian aid networks, both of which
are unable to adequately respond to the needs of thesecommunities. Limited access to humanitarian aid services andthe legal limitations to working as a Syrian refugee has pushed
many Syrian families into extreme poverty, putting pressure on
all family members to work and earn an income through often
precarious and high-risk means.

The disproportionate impact of conflict on women and girls
is today well known, and Syrian refugees living in Lebanon,
Jordan, and other Arab countries are not exempt from theincreasing prevalence of violence. In Lebanon, sexualand gender-based violence is one of the primary risks
affecting female Syrian refugees, with the most commonly
reported forms being domestic violence, sexual violence– including rape and physical assault – and early marriage.
Social stigma and conservative gender norms contributeto low reporting rates, and women and girls are further
discouraged from reporting given the common belief that
Lebanese authorities will not pay similar attention to Syrian
cases versus Lebanese cases.
Child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) has been thecentre of international focus during the last few years of
the Syrian crisis. In both Jordan and Lebanon, rates of childmarriage have increased almost twofold since the start ofthe conflict: in the past three years, the percentage of child
Syrian marriages in Jordan from 15 per cent to nearly 36
per cent.20 In Lebanon, accurate statistics vary given thatthe many marriages among Syrian refugee communities
are not formally registered, but current estimates notethat more than a third of Syrian women in Lebanon were
married before the age of 18, with nearly 24 per cent of
Syrian refugee adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and17 currently married.21
Reasons for CEFM among Syrian refugees vary. In Lebanon,a study conducted by the Women’s Refugee Commission(WRC) in collaboration with the American University ofBeirut found that fears of sexual violence, and the desire
to protect the reputation and honour of young women andgirls both contributed to family decisions to marry off their

Arab States Reportdaughters.22 Other reports cite the strain on households
to provide for themselves as the main reason for childmarriage. Limited income, unfavourable living situations –such as camp settings, or the informal tented settlements(ITS) in Lebanon, and limited access to humanitarian
services all contribute to heightened vulnerabilities for
Syrian refugees; for families of young girls, marriage isunderstood to be comparably better than the perceived
and actual threats of sexual and physical violence single
women and adolescent girls are susceptible to.23
Contrary to the belief that marriage will protect young girls,
CEFM negatively impacts the livelihoods of young womenand girls. CEFM is a violation of human rights, and is often
accompanied by sexual, physical, and emotional violenceat the hands of their new husbands. Young girls are often
completely unaware of the gender-normative requirementsof marriage, including care of the household and children.

19

Many of these young girls are not physically ready to bear
children, and often find themselves at risks for complications
both during and after pregnancy, including malnourishment.
Finally, for many young girls, marriage often means theirforced removal from any formal education. In fact, keeping
girls in school is cited as one of the best mechanisms forlowering and ultimately preventing instances of CEFM.
Many non-government organisations, UN agencies, anduniversities are working to map the current landscape of
CEFM among Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The Institutefor Women’s Studies in the Arab World at the LebaneseAmerican University in collaboration with both WRC
and Johns Hopkins University is currently conducting aprevalence survey on CEFM in South Lebanon as part ofsuch nationwide efforts to collect accurate data on childmarriage. This project and others like it all aim to highlightthe gender-specific outcomes of forced displacement,
including the increasing prevalence of sexual and genderbased violence.

Atmeh, Syria, January 2013.
Refugee camp for displaced persons in
Syria. Refugees who have fled from Syria
are currently housed in camps and incommunities in Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq.
In Lebanon, rates of child marriage among
Syrian populations have increased twofoldin the past three years. Limited access tohumanitarian aid and legal restrictions on
ability to work has pushed Syrian refugees
to extreme poverty. Coupled with fears of
sexual violence and the desire to protect the
reputation and honour of young women andgirls has contributed to family decisions tomarry off their children early.
Photo credit: Joel Carillet/Getty Images.

20

Global Slavery Index 2018

MODERN SLAVERYIN THE ARAB STATESThe Arab States are currently both the source and recipient of the largest numbers ofrefugees and internally displaced people globally. As the region experiences conflictand resulting displacement – and given its position at the junction of migratory
paths for Afghans, Sudanese, and Somalis fleeing conflicts in their homelands –vulnerability to modern slavery in the Arab States has sharply increased.

An estimated 5.7 million refugees originated in the region
Children in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen are recruited into armed
since mid-2016 and 12 million people were displacedgroups and militias. There are clear cases of mass abduction
internally in Middle Eastern countries.24 The war in Syria has
and forcible recruitment by the Islamic State (IS). In 2015,
seen more than five million people flee into neighbouring
IS militants told families in Mosul with two or more sonsLebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt, as well as Europethat one son would have to join the group.28 Children wereand other destinations. Similarly, in Iraq, conflict has caused
generally separated into two groups – five – to 10-year-olds
the displacement of more than 2.7 million people withinwere placed in religious education camps, while 10 – tothe country, and 3.6 million displaced people who have
15-year-olds were forced into military training.29 Children
25
returned home as of March 2018. This
took direct and indirect part in hostilities,
displacement, accompanied by severeshooting captives, planting explosive
Ethnic and religious
economic decline, widespread violence
devices, engaging in armed attacks, acting
and psychological distress, collapse ofminorities such as theas spies, transporting military supplies
essential public services in many districts,
and equipment, and conducting patrols.
Assyrian and Yazidi
and weak labour laws has contributed
Children were forbidden from speaking theircommunities are still
towards the vulnerability of refugees,
own languages and forced to watch graphic
suffering from theinternally displaced persons, minority
propaganda videos including beheadings.30
groups, and ordinary citizens to trafficking
coordinated, systematic They were flogged, tortured, raped, andand exploitation.
killed for resisting.31 Massive challenges

attacks and abductions

There appear to be organised groups withinfrom 2014 – the largest now exist for the global community forthe rescue, rehabilitation, and long-term
refugee camps making work arrangements
single capture of women reintegration of these children and others
for refugees and unaccompanied
this century.
in similar circumstances.
children. It is reported that Iraqi and
Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, forEthnic and religious minorities such as theexample, work in the food service industry,
Assyrian and Yazidi communities are still suffering fromtextile factories, construction sector, and agricultural
the coordinated, systematic attacks and abductions fromlabour in conditions analogous to forced labour. In Iraq
2014 – the largest single capture of women this century.
and Lebanon, Syrian refugee children are trafficked for
Women and girls were forcibly transferred to IS holding
purposes of exploitation, including begging and sellingsites and homes, forced to convert to Islam, forced to marryitems on the street. In 2015, at least 1,500 children (75IS fighters, raped and sexually assaulted, disposed of as
percent of whom were Syrian) were reportedly begging“gifts,” and sold in markets as slaves.
and working as street vendors in and close to Beirut,
26
working excessive hours to earn income for their families.
Despite the liberation of Mosul in 2017, where many
Some instances of illegal forced begging on the streets
Assyrian and Yazidi girls and women were held, few victims
by women and children refugees and asylum-seeking inwere released.
Jordan also exist.27

Arab States Report

In addition to the high number of refugees and internallydisplaced persons, this is a region that hosts 17.6 million
migrant workers,32 representing more than one-tenth of
all migrant workers in the world and one in three workers
in the Arab States. The Arab States region continues to bea destination for men and women from South and SouthEast Asia, and Sub-Saharan and North Africa, who are
attracted to the region with promises of employment in
the construction, manufacturing, agricultural, and hospitality
sectors, and in domestic work. In most countries thesemigrant populations make up a large percentage of theworkforce. For example, in 2015, the 1.7 million migrant
workers living in Qatar accounted for more than 90 percentof the country’s workforce.33

21

In Kuwait, domestic workers report abuses including
deprivation of food, sleeping on kitchen floors or balconies,
confinement, and psychological abuse, including racist andxenophobic statements.39
There is a significant gap in research and information oncommercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage in the
Arab states, but these continue to be issues, especiallywhen linked to conflict. A rise in child marriages has been
documented among Syrian refugee populations in Jordan,
with the prevalence of early marriage among all registeredmarriages for Syrians increasing from 25 percent in 2013
to 31.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014.40 Families arereportedly agreeing to early marriages to protect girls fromsexual violence in times of conflict and to lessen economic
burdens.41 Forced marriages used to traffic women into
commercial sexual exploitation in foreign countries is also
common. In Islamic State controlled areas, recent reportssuggest Syrian and Iraqi women and girls face pressure to
marry IS fighters and that some parents felt it important for
their daughters to do so for economic security and physicalprotection.42

The exploitation of migrant workers, particularly in theconstruction and services sectors, is widely reported
across the region. Migrant workers are subject to practices
that may amount to forced labour including extortionate
recruitment fees, illegal confiscation of identity documents,
withholding and non-payment of salaries, hazardous
working conditions, unhygienic living conditions, unlawfully
excessive work hours performed under
Cultural and belief systems are core
the threat of deportation, and physical anddrivers of forced marriage, not only in thesexual abuse.34 Migrant workers accept
Domestic workers
Arab States but in other regions, as well.
high interest loans in their countries ofAs such, these marriages also take placeremain
one
of
the
most
origin to afford the exorbitant and often
outside of conflict situations, and in these
exploited groups ofillegal recruitment fees they are coerced
cases women and girls are at greater risk
into paying.35 Systematic under-, delayed-,
workers in theof experiencing conditions similar to slavery
and non-payment of migrant worker wages
Arab States.
and of being subjected to other forms ofacross the Gulf Cooperation Council
exploitation, including sexual exploitation,(GCC) countries, coupled with growing
domestic servitude, and other forms ofdebt at home, increases workers’ dependence on theirforced labour. There are many reasons for forced marriage,
employment and reduces confidence to leave exploitativesome of which are closely linked to longstanding culturaljobs or demand better working conditions.
practices and understandings of gender roles, while others
Domestic workers remain one of the most exploited groups
reflect financial needs. Across the Arab States region there
of workers in the Arab States. The GCC region has an
are a number of customs/practices, such as fasliyya, alestimated 2.4 million migrant domestic workers, most fromshighar, jin be jin, muta’a, and misyar, under which women
Asia and Africa.36 Many families and expatriate households
and girls can be married off and, accordingly, face andepend on migrant domestic workers for household chores
increased risk of exploitation. Some involve young girls
such as cooking, cleaning, and caring for children or theand women being married in exchange for payment to theirelderly; however, the nature of the work carries substantial
families, the cancellation of debt, or to settle family disputes.
risk. Isolated in private homes, they often work within a
Forced marriages can also occur when a rapist is permitted
cultural context where patriarchal, xenophobic, racist,to escape criminal sanctions by marrying the victim, usuallyand sexist attitudes converge to create a high degree ofwith the consent of her family. Other practices take the form
vulnerability to exploitation and physical/sexual abuse.37
of trading one woman in marriage for another between
Exploitation is reported to take on various forms, including
tribes to avoid paying dowries, or of temporary marriages
confiscation of passports, non-payment or partial paymentthat bind a woman or girl to her husband for an agreed
of salaries, working long hours without breaks or days off,
period of time – sometimes days or weeks, and in someinadequate food and housing conditions, restrictions on
cases only hours – but do not afford them any legal rights.
communication, confinement, and cases of physical orThis leaves them vulnerable to domestic servitude andsexual abuse. In Oman, domestic workers have reported
sexual exploitation, and in many cases denies citizenshipto any children from the marriage.43
employers threating to kill them or falsely accusing them ofcrimes if they sought to leave. One Bangladeshi domestic
worker who demanded her wages was falsely accused oftheft, and once returned to her employer by the police she
was abused for two days with her employer cutting her hairand burning her feet.38

22

Global Slavery Index 2018

PREVALENCEFIGURE 5
Prevalence rating by country

Syria

Lebanon

Iraq

BahrainJordanKuwait
Qatar
United ArabEmirates

Saudi Arabia

Oman

Yemen

high

low

In 2017, Walk Free Foundation and the International
Labour Organization (ILO), together with the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) produced the Global
Estimates of Modern Slavery, estimating that 40.3 million
people were living in modern slavery on any given day in2016. Of this number, an estimated 520,000 men, women,
and children were living in modern slavery in the ArabStates. This is a prevalence of 3.3 victims per 1,000 persons.
When considering the forms of modern slavery, the largest
share of those in modern slavery were victims of forced
labour (2.2 victims per 1,000 people). The rate of forced
marriage was 1.1 victims per 1,000 people.
Over half of all victims of forced labour exploitation (51percent) were held in debt bondage and this affected agreater share of female victims than male victims. The ArabStates accounted for 1 percent of the world’s victims offorced sexual exploitation.

Within the region, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen together have boththe highest prevalence of modern slavery and the highest
absolute number of victims, accounting for 76 percent ofall victims in the region (Table 1).
Although these are the most reliable estimates of modern
slavery to date, they should be interpreted cautiously andconsidered very conservative given the gaps and limitationsof data generally, and for the Arab States in particular. The
current Global Estimates of Modern Slavery do not cover
all forms of modern slavery; forms such as trafficking forthe purposes of organ removal, child soldiers, or childmarriage that could also constitute modern slavery cannot
be adequately measured at this stage. Further, efforts to
produce accurate estimates of modern slavery in the ArabStates were significantly hampered by substantial gaps in
the available data.

Arab States Report

23

Comparability of the prevalence estimates withthe previous Global Slavery Index
This edition of the Global Slavery Index introduces
important improvements to the ways prevalence of modern
slavery is measured. Building on the collaborative work
undertaken with the ILO and IOM on the Global Estimatesof Modern Slavery, the Global Slavery Index results reflectchanges to scope, methodology, and expanded data
sources. The estimates are presented as a stock (or point
in time) calculation rather than a flow (total over a periodof time), include state imposed forced labour, and better
estimates of sexual exploitation, and children in modern
slavery. Further, we were able to count exploitation where
it occurred more consistently due to a considerably larger
number of surveys.

As a result of these advancements, the national prevalence
estimates are not comparable with previous editions of
the Global Slavery Index. Nonetheless, the strengthened
methodology reflects stronger data, increased levels of
data, and more systematic coverage of different formsof modern slavery. As such, while comparability fromprevious years is lost, the changes are justified by the needto continually improve our knowledge base. A detailed
description of the changes to the methodology is set out
in Appendix 2: Part B of the Global Slavery Index, available
for download at www.globalslaveryindex.org.

These gaps include:›› Lack of data on the large migrant worker population
working in the region. Surveys were conducted in only
two countries in the region (Lebanon and Jordan) andin a language (Arabic) that most migrant workers do
not speak. Further, no surveys were conducted in
the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, due
to issues of access to the migrant worker populationsof interest, despite the incidence of forced labour
reported by various sources in such sectors as
domestic work and construction in GCC countries.

that are experiencing profound conflict. However, it
is known that conflict is a significant risk factor forincreasing the vulnerability of civilian populations to
exploitation. In some cases, this exploitation amounts
to modern slavery. As conflict-affected populations
face decreasing economic opportunities, many
adopt negative coping mechanisms and dangerous
survival strategies; as people flee anticipated or
actual fighting, they may be pushed to settle in unsafe
temporary locations where they may become targets
for exploitation. Often the rule of law erodes andprotection mechanisms for vulnerable people, if they
existed, are diminished by lack of funding and inability
to access people in unstable security conditions.

›› Lack of data on forced marriage where there are no
surveys. Additional research is needed to unpack
understandings of forced marriage in the region
because, even where surveys can be conducted,
there is some reluctance among respondents toconsider a traditional cultural practice as a criminal
act – and this impacts upon the veracity of data.
›› Lack of data from countries in conflict leads to asignificant underestimate. It is typically not possible
to survey in countries, such as Syria and Yemen,

In light of the barriers to accurate measurement, themassive number of vulnerable people – whether they
are migrants workers or internally displaced people andrefugees – and the numerous reports of forced labour andforced marriage across the region, the reported 520,000
men, women, and children living in modern slavery in the
Arab States is undoubtedly a significant underestimate.

TABLE 1
Estimates of prevalence of modern slavery by country44
Regional
rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Country
Syrian Arab Republic*
Iraq*
Yemen*
Oman*
Saudi Arabia*
Bahrain*Jordan*Lebanon*United Arab Emirates*
Qatar*
Kuwait*Estimated prevalence(victims per 1,000
population)

Estimated absolute
number of victims

Population

7.3
4.8
3.1
2.1
1.9
1.9
1.8
1.7
1.7
1.5
1.5

136,000
174,000
85,0009,000
61,0003,000
17,00010,00015,0004,000
6,000

18,735,000
36,116,000
26,916,000
4,200,000
31,557,000
1,372,000
9,159,000
5,851,000
9,154,000
2,482,000
3,936,000*Substantial gaps in data exist for the Arab States region and Gulf countries in particular. These gaps point to a significant underestimateof the extent of modern slavery in this region. As a result, the country-level estimates presented here are considered very conservativeand should be interpreted cautiously.

24

Global Slavery Index 2018

Haifa, a 36-year-old woman from Iraq’s Yazidi community
who was taken as a sex slave by Islamic State group fighters,
stands on a street during an interview with AFP journalists
in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on November 17, 2016.
Haifa and her family were among thousands of membersof the Yazidi minority shown no mercy by IS when it swept
through areas north and west of the Iraqi capital in 2014.
Men were gunned down and thousands of women, including
Haifa and her younger sister, were taken as sex slaves.
Photo credit: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images

Arab States Report

25

VULNERABILITY
FIGURE 6
Overall vulnerability scores map

Lebanon

Syria
Iraq

BahrainJordanKuwait
Qatar
United ArabEmirates
Saudi Arabia

Oman

Yemen

high

low

Our assessment of vulnerability is conducted at the national
level and covers five dimensions: governance issues, lackof basic needs, inequality, disenfranchised groups andeffects of conflict. A regional analysis of our vulnerability
measures suggests higher risk of modern slavery in the
Arab States than is evident in the prevalence data, with the
Arab States rating as the second most vulnerable region(57 percent). The Arab States performed relatively wellon the lack of basic needs dimension of the vulnerability
model, but relatively poorly on the governance and effectsof conflict dimensions (Figure 7). The regional score in theconflict dimension hides diversity within the region, withsome countries such as Yemen, Syria, and Iraq scoringmuch higher on this dimension than other countries in theregion. The regional average on measures of inequality
points to slightly higher vulnerability than the global

average on this dimension (41 percent cf 38 percent) and,again, there is a great deal of diversity within the region,
with scores ranging from a low of 25 percent in UAE to ahigh of 65 percent in Iraq.
Syria, Yemen, and Iraq had the highest overall vulnerability
scores in the region (Table 2). United Arab Emirates, Qatar,and Kuwait had the lowest overall vulnerability scores in theregion, although each of these countries was found to havea substantial number of modern slavery victims. Countries
with high vulnerability due to effects of conflict generally
have higher vulnerability scores across the remaining four
dimensions. This is evident in an analysis of our vulnerability
measures, which consistently rank Syria, Iraq, and Yemen
among the most, if not the most, vulnerable countries
across the five dimensions of vulnerability.

26

Global Slavery Index 2018

Certain countries in the region continue to exhibit politicalinstability and weak rule of law, and they appear to allow
crimes to occur with impunity, particularly against certain
populations such as undocumented migrants or women, allof which increase individual risk to modern slavery. Syria,
Yemen, and Iraq had the highest vulnerability scores
relating to governance issues. This includes politicalinstability, women’s physical security, weapons access,and the government’s response to modern slavery. In
Syria, political instability derived from the ongoing conflict
there is adding to increasing unrest and uncertainty, as
the government, in conflict with various opposition forces
and the Islamic State, is focused primarily on waging
military action to consolidate its control, and under thesecircumstances is certainly not prioritising protection
for people who may be vulnerable to modern slavery.
Conversely, the UAE, Qatar, and Jordan had the lowest
vulnerability scores for this factor.

The destruction of infrastructure and breakdown ofgovernment services has left the population without
basic services, exacerbating their vulnerability. Intense
violence also means that humanitarian aid services areoften suspended, further contributing to the vulnerabilityof people. Qatar, the UAE, and Jordan were rated withrelatively low vulnerability to the above factors, but thisdoes not mean populations within these countries were
not vulnerable.
Iraq, Syria, and Yemen are also the highest rated interms of inequality. This includes violent crime, income
inequality, and confidence in judicial systems. Inequality
as experienced in the region between the rich and poor
intensifies vulnerability. The UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar wererated with relatively low vulnerability to the above factors.

In terms of disenfranchised groups, including immigrants
and minorities, populations in Yemen, Jordan, and Iraq
have the highest vulnerability. Throughout
Severe economic decline and the collapse
the region, xenophobic attitudes towardsof essential public services persist as
In Syria, since the start immigrants and foreign workers fromserious challenges within the region.
Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa persist
According to our vulnerability assessment,of the war, more thandue to attitudes that most migrants are
Yemen, Syria, and Iraq were rated with
4.8 million people have uneducated, inferior, and suited only forthe highest vulnerability in terms of“dirty” or low skilled jobs.48 The kafala
fled the country, andnourishment and access. This includes
sponsorship system continues to operate,
6.1 million have been
undernourishment and lack of access toallowing employers to exert control over anwater, health services, and social safety
internally displaced.
employee’s movement and employment.49
nets. In Yemen, an estimated 17.8 million
Such a system amplifies the existing
people are food insecure.45 Due to conflict,vulnerability of immigrants by restricting a worker’s ability
closure of Yemen’s ports for commercial shipping has
to change employers without the employer’s permission or
resulted in a sharp increase in prices of basic commodities,
to escape exploitative situations and leave the country.50
accelerating food insecurity and the collapse of alreadyAttempts to escape exploitative situations may result
fragile basic services.46 Access to health services remains
in the worker being criminalised for “absconding,” withseverely restricted with only half of all health facilities in thepunishments ranging from detention to deportation.51 In
country still functioning, and those that are still in operation
Iraq, bureaucratic and institutional discrimination continues
face severe shortages in medicines, equipment, and staff.
against minorities including the Kurds, and religious
Furthermore, more than 16 million people are without
minorities such as the Assyrians and Yazidis, among others.
access to safe drinking water and sanitation.47

FIGURE 7
Regional average vulnerability scores by dimension, Arab States

64.8

Governance issues
24.6

Lack of basic needs

41.2

Inequality
Disenfranchised groups

33.4

Effects of conflict

40.0

Overallweighted average

57.2
0

20

40

60

80

100

Arab States Report

While the “Arabisation” policy that forced minorities tochange their ethnic identity ended in 2003, decades ofdeliberate exclusion of minorities from policy development,
politics, decision-making, and education have led to greater
vulnerability among these groups.52 Without adequate
protections provided by the Kurdish and Iraqi governmentsin the post-conflict phase, the vulnerability of these groups
will be exacerbated.
Our vulnerability data highlights Syria, Iraq, andYemen as having the highest vulnerability to modern
slavery due to high levels of conflict, terrorism, anddisplacement. Ongoing conflicts in the region continued
to create vulnerability through displacement; displaced
populations are at a higher risk of being exploited in a newenvironment with limited or no economic resources orsocial networks. In Syria, since the start of the war, morethan 4.8 million people have fled the country, and 6.1 million
have been internally displaced.53 Refugees have fled toneighbouring states such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey,
straining already weak infrastructure and limited resources.

27

The situation is replicated in Yemen, where more than
3 million people have been forced to flee their homes
since the escalation of conflict two and a half years ago,
including 2 million who remain displaced.54 Vulnerability
remains high even when the conflict has ended. In Iraq,
efforts to regain IS-controlled land have displaced close to
5.4 million people.55 Major offenses against IS have resulted
in extreme violence and mass civilian casualties. Abduction,
kidnapping, trafficking, and slavery have been used byarmed groups, militias, and state-supported actors to instil
panic, generate fear, and control communities. Parties tothe conflicts and opportunistic locals have profited fromthe mass displacement by selling abducted women andgirls into sexual slavery and coercing internally displaced
people in camps to sell organs for a fraction of their worth.
In such cases, persecuted minorities and children havea heightened risk of being trafficked by such groups.
Conversely, the wealthiest nations in the region appear tohave evaded the effects of neighbouring conflicts, with thelowest vulnerability scores for this dimension reported for
the UAE, Qatar, and Oman.

TABLE 2Estimated vulnerability to modern slavery by country (%, the higher the score, the higher the level of vulnerability)Dis­
enfranchised
groups

Effects ofconflict

Overallweighted
average

GovernanceissuesLack ofbasic needs

Inequality

Syrian Arab Republic

85.6

36.9

62.5

33.4

95.4

92.3

Yemen

79.2

43.1

49.2

53.0

69.9

86.4

Iraq

72.6

34.9

65.2

46.6

89.4

85.7
58.9

Country nameLebanon

59.1

22.6

48.1

44.8

47.8

Oman

68.7

20.5

37.8

33.4

6.4

50.1

Jordan

57.9

15.7

41.8

47.4

26.2

49.9

Bahrain

63.0

25.8

34.5

24.0

25.4

49.6

Saudi Arabia

63.2

21.9

30.1

14.2

32.2

46.3

Kuwait

59.7

20.1

29.3

29.3

28.5

45.9

Qatar

56.3

13.8

29.5

33.4

7.0

37.7

United Arab Emirates

47.9

15.1

24.7

7.8

11.9

26.8

28

Global Slavery Index 2018

IMPORTING RISK:

G20 countries in the Arab States region and import of products at-risk ofmodern slavery
An analysis of imported risk in the Global Slavery Index confirms that,generally speaking, citizens in G20 countries enjoy relatively low levels ofvulnerability to this crime within their borders, and many aspects of theirgovernment responses to preventing this crime are comparatively strong.
Nonetheless, businesses and governments in G20 countries are importing
products that are at risk of modern slavery, with hardly any effort being
applied by governments to regulate the labour conditions involved in theirproduction. Accordingly, we conducted research globally to identify andvalidate a short list of products at risk of modern slavery, and then map out
the extent to which these products are imported by G20 countries.

Saudi Arabia is the only G20 country in the Arab States
region. In addition to the high level of vulnerability tomodern slavery within the country discussed earlier inthis report, an analysis of G20 imports indicates that asubstantial amount of risk is being imported into Saudi
Arabia. While this list is not exhaustive, the top five products
at risk of modern slavery (according to US$ value) imported
by Saudi Arabia are (1) apparel and clothing accessories, (2)laptops, computers, and mobile phones, (3) rice, (4) fish, and(5) sugarcane. These products are sourced from 11 countries
and are valued at US$5.8 billion. These imports are sourced
primarily from China (66 percent) and India (25 percent).

While G20 countries have imported risk for some time, they
are in the early stages of responding to the connection
between modern slavery and supply chains of businesses
and public procurement. The Government Response Index
tracks the progress of governments towards achievementof five milestones, including “Government and businessstop sourcing goods and services produced by forced
labour,” and it is clear that existing efforts fall short of what
is required. G20 countries achieved an average scoreof only 11 percent for their efforts to stop sourcing goods andservices produced by forced labour. Saudi Arabia is among
the G20 countries that scored zero on these indicators,
while the highest score was reported for the United States(65 percent). Saudi Arabia has yet to implement laws tominimise the risk of modern slavery in public supply chainsor to encourage businesses to practice due diligence.

Labourers protect their faces from scorching sun as theytake a break at the construction site of a new track for
the Dubai Metro, on 22 May 2013. Thousands of foreign
workers, mainly from South Asia, employed by Dubai’s
construction company Arabtec went on strike in 2013
to demand a rise in their wages. Despite labour reforms
in UAE in recent years, migrant workers continue to be
subjected to abuse that amounts to forced labour.
Photo credit: Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images.

Arab States Report

29

30

Global Slavery Index 2018

GOVERNMENT RESPONSESFIGURE 8
Government response rating to modern slavery by country

Lebanon

Syria
Iraq

BahrainJordanKuwait
Qatar

United ArabEmirates

Saudi Arabia

Oman

Yemen

A

BBB* BBBBB

B

CCC CC

C

D

Not
rated

Those in grey were not included in this year’s government response index due to ongoing conflict, or due to a non-functioning government.

Government responses to modern slavery in the ArabStates region were often characterised by inadequate
victim protection and a weak criminal justice response.
Due to the ongoing conflict and extreme disruptions togovernment functioning, we have not included ratings for
Iraq, Syria, and Yemen this year.56
The UAE took the most steps to respond to modern slavery,
achieving the highest (B) rating within the region while
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia achieved the lowest (CC) ratings.
Jordan’s rating dropped from B to CCC this year (Table 4).
When correlated against GDP (PPP) per capita, Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates
all stand out as taking relatively limited action despite

the size of the problem and resources at their disposal.
Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Lebanon all maintained their
CCC ratings.
Some notable improvements have been made. Qatar
has pledged a series of labour reforms to improve thetreatment of migrant workers. In 2016, Qatar announced
a landmark decision to replace the kafala system witha contract-based law system aimed at ensuring greater
protection for workers.57 Under the kafala (sponsorship)
system, a migrant’s right to work and live in the host country
is dependent on the sponsor, so workers are unable toenter or leave the country or seek alternative employment
without their sponsor’s written consent.58

Arab States Report31

In 2017, Qatar ratified Law No.15 (Domestic Workers Law)
TABLE 3
granting labour protections for domestic workers. This
Movements in government response rating for the
new law guarantees domestic workers a maximum 10-hour
Arab States 2016 to 2018
workday, a weekly rest day, three weeks of annual leave, an
end-of-service payment, and healthcare benefits.59 Despite
2016
Change2018
Country
Ratingin ratingRatingthis, the law is still weaker than the country’s general labour
law and does not fully conform to the International Labour
United Arab
Organization (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention.60 The
B
B
Emirates
government has also announced its intention to introduce
CCC
JordanBa minimum wage rate for all workers and undertake the
Qatar
CCC
CCC
renewal of residence permits directly with migrant workers
in effort to replace the kafala system. Labour Dispute
Bahrain
CCC
CCC
Resolution Committees established by Law No. 13 of 2017
Oman
CCC
CCC
will also be operationalised to offer effective and timely
Lebanon
CCC
CCC
remedies to workers’ grievances.61 The government had
Saudi Arabia
CCCC
taken steps to reimburse the recruitment fees paid by
KuwaitCCCC
migrant workers constructing the World Cup stadiums
and to cover the fees of future constructions workers, amove that will see £3.6 million return to, or remain in, thehands of migrant workers.62 In early September 2018, the5,000 workers are believed to have availed themselves ofgovernment removed the requirement for exit visas forthe amnesty, with numbers continuing to rise.70
migrant workers seeking to leave the country.63 Previously,
Recent moves in Oman to require companies of a certain
migrant workers had to seek theirsize to meet a 10 percent Omani hiring
employer’s permission to be able to leave,
quota, in order to boost employment of
but with this new law, all workers covered
The UAE took thenationals, have raised concerns for migrantby the Labour Code will be able to leave
most
steps
to
respondworkers. Companies that do not comply are
Qatar without a permit. The law does notbarred from renewing work permits and,tomodernslavery,
apply to those not covered by the Labour
Code, such as domestic workers, however,achieving the highest (B) at the time of writing, the government had
not addressed the impact on workers who
the government is currently working withrating within the region would become undocumented as a result
the ILO to grant this group of workers thewhile Kuwait and Saudi of sanctions placed on their companies.71
same rights.64

Arabia achieved the

Despite regional and international pressure
Bahrain is also attempting to take positive
lowest (CC) ratings.
for all states to ban the kafala system, Saudi
steps away from the kafala system, with
Arabia has declared it will not be abolishingits cabinet approving plans to launch a
the system under its ambitious “Vision 2030”
pilot project in 2017 in which workers canplan to reform the economy.72 While migrant labour law
sponsor themselves and work for multiple employers underreforms are a positive step, there is significant room for
new work permits.65 At the time of writing, Bahrain had
improvement to ensure the new systems are implemented.
introduced a mandatory contract that employers seeking
to hire a domestic worker must complete. Although the
Identification of victims remains worryingly low acrosscontract requires information on the nature of the work,
the region. Only two countries have adopted and use
work and rest hours, and days off, these conditions are stillclear guidelines for screening and identifying potential
determined by the employer rather than regulated by law. A
victims and only three countries have a national referral
Wage Protection System is to be introduced in May 2018 andmechanism in place. Victim support services were provided
will include domestic workers.66 In Kuwait, the government
or supported by the government in all countries. In Saudi
has been criticised for appearing to be “satisfied merely by
Arabia, shelters are available for child beggars who are
the [Domestic Labour] law’s existence,”67 and for allowing
trafficking victims as well as welfare centres for femalemigrant workers to remain vulnerable to exploitation anddomestic workers, some who were potentially trafficked.73
abuse due to a lack of enforcement.68 The lack of protection
In Kuwait, victims were provided with legal, medical, andavailable to domestic workers in particular is highlighted
other support services in a shelter where staff communicate
in the many dangerous escape attempts or suicides
with employers to retrieve withheld travel documentsthat have been recorded over the years, including an
and obtain payment for return tickets.74 However, in fiveincident involving an Ethiopian domestic worker who wascountries, services were unavailable to some victims of
captured on video by her employer as she first dangled,
human trafficking, especially men, domestic workers, andthen fell from the seventh floor of an apartment building.69
forced labour victims. There have been reports that women
Further, a recent amnesty that allows workers with expired
are detained in shelters, and that many prefer to seek
residencies to return home without penalty has been
shelter in their embassies rather than in facilities fundedcriticised for circumventing any real action on workers’
by the host government. For workers from countries thatrights, as under the amnesty workers are forced to leave
have no embassy in the destination country, the situation
without receiving the pay owed to them. Despite this, about
is even more precarious. 75

32

Global Slavery Index 2018

Over half the countries in the region ran campaigns on
how to report and identify victims of modern slavery.
However, there is no evidence that these campaigns have
led to an increase in members of the public reporting casesof modern slavery. While all countries have a reporting
mechanism such as a hotline, this was not freely available
in Lebanon and did not operate 24/7 in Bahrain or Qatar.
Overall, criminal justice responses remain weak throughout
the region. Only Qatar has criminalised forced labour andno states have criminalised child prostitution or forced
marriageAll countries have criminalised human trafficking,while Bahrain, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE havenot criminalised slavery. All countries except Lebanon
provide training for prosecutors and the judiciary. However,even if training is provided, it generally lacks regularity,
being systematic only in Jordan, Kuwait, and the United
Arab Emirates.
Gaps in enforcement can be found in a lack of coordination
and accountability mechanisms. Only two countries, Saudi
Arabia and the UAE, have a National Action Plan to combat
some form of slavery, but neither of these countries has anindependent body monitoring the plan’s implementationor provides adequate funding for its National Action Plan.

All countries have undertaken a basic human trafficking
awareness campaign once in the past five years to
educate the public about the risks of modern slavery. This
ranged from awareness campaigns through the Ministryof Education in Jordan to raise awareness of trafficking
in public universities and high schools76 to the Ministryof Manpower (MOM) in Oman conducting awarenesscampaigns through the media and distributing pamphlets
to migrant workers on their rights.77
Despite the importance of migration in this region, only
Jordan and Lebanon have conducted labour inspectionsin the informal sector to identify cases of modern slavery.
Also, given the high number of asylum seekers within theregion, only Lebanon and Oman have systems in place toallow asylum seekers to seek protection. While Lebanon
has not ratified the Refugee Convention, nor does it havespecific legislation, the country is proactively engaged in
refugee issues and refugees are generally able to receive
protection within its borders.
Little information is available on whether Arab states aremaking efforts to stop sourcing goods or services linked
to modern slavery. No evidence exists of Arab states
adopting public procurement policies to minimise the risk ofgovernments purchasing products linked to forced labour.

TABLE 4Government response rating, milestone percentage, and total score by country
Supportsurvivors

Criminaljustice

Coordination

United Arab Emirates

63.0

41.1

56.3

42.9

0.0

47.8

CCC

Jordan

48.1

42.8

31.3

38.1

0.0

38.6

CCC

Qatar

53.0

31.7

31.3

42.9

0.0

35.4

CCC

Bahrain

55.2

37.2

18.8

31.0

0.0

32.6

CCC

Oman

32.4

22.8

12.5

59.5

0.0

32.0

CCC

Lebanon

33.9

30.0

31.3

38.1

0.0

31.3

CC

Saudi Arabia

32.4

42.8

37.5

26.2

0.0

27.9

CC

Kuwait

28.7

33.9

25.0

45.2

0.0

27.8

Rating Country

B

Address risk Supply chains

TOTAL

Ahmedabad, India, 17 March 2017.
Wahidaben Nasirkhan Pathan holds a photo of hersister Hafijabanu Rajabhusen, who has been reported
missing in Saudi Arabia following a dispute with her
employer and employment agent. Gujarat state minister
Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said Indian domestic worker
Hafijabanu was trying to return to India after ‘being
exploited and tortured’ by a Saudi family in Riyadh,
where she was working through a Mumbai-based
employment agency. Relatives say they have not been incontact with Hafijabanu since she missed a March 16
flight back to India.
Photo credit: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images.

Arab States Report

33

34

Global Slavery Index 2018

REGIONAL RESPONSE
All countries within the Arab States region are involved in some form ofregional response. Various regional bodies exist to promote collaboration
between the countries on key issues affecting the region, including migrationand human trafficking, however there is little evidence of action under the
auspices of these bodies, suggesting that these are not priority issues forgovernments in this region.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a regional politicalorganisation comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In 2016, GCC
members and the United Kingdom launched a GCC-UK
Strategic Partnership to foster closer relations and develop
collective responses to regional issues. This included
pledging to work together to support refugees and fighthuman trafficking through victim support and accountability
measures for perpetrators.78 Importantly, GCC member
states agreed to ensure compliance with international
conventions on forced labour and discuss initiatives tocombat human trafficking as well as improve identificationof traffickers and victims.79
Similarly, in 2016, at an event organised by the Omani
National Commission for Human Trafficking in collaboration
with United Nations office on Drugs and Crime for the GGC
states, Arab experts met to discuss human trafficking and its
links to ongoing conflicts. This was part of an Arab initiative
to build capacity to combat human trafficking in accordancewith relevant UN conventions and standards.80
Mounting tensions among GCC member states have raisedquestions about the council’s future. In December 2017,
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE did not send headsof state to participate in the 38th GCC summit meeting
due to growing hostilities between Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
the UAE, and Bahrain. The summit had to be cut from a
two-day meeting to a one-day session and the separate
announcement of a new cooperation committee consistingof only the UAE and Saudi Arabia added to tensions andongoing concerns about the council’s ability to promote
cooperation and collaboration amongst all member states.81

The League of Arab States (LAS), or Arab League, isanother regional organisation bringing together Arabcountries with the purpose of strengthening cooperation
among members.82 In collaboration with the International
Organization for Migration, the LAS launched the Arab
Regional Consultative Process on Migration (ARCP) in 2015as a state-driven, informal forum to facilitate dialogue andcooperation between LAS member states on migration
issues. Although the ARCP endorsed a 2016-2017 workplan, little information is available on what the plan entails.83
In collaboration with UNODC, the LAS has set up a regional
program for 2016-2021 to help guide UNODC’s efforts in
the Middle East and North Africa and further strengthen
national and regional efforts to combat transnationalorganised crime, drugs, and terrorism.84 In 2016, theUnited Nations Security Council met with members of the
LAS in the first “consultative meeting” between these twobodies.85 During this meeting, representatives from LAS
noted the overwhelming impact the refugee crisis has hadon host countries, as well as the lack of financial resources
needed to provide protection to vulnerable groups.
The LAS has established a regional technical task force, incoordination with its member states and UN agencies, todiscuss the Arab region’s progress towards the Sustainable
Development Goals, to set priorities, and to develop amechanism for reporting every five years at the regionaland national levels.86 The LAS also runs capacity building
programs to improve the migration management capacityof Arab governments, along with a program on crime
prevention and human trafficking, through which it has
conducted studies and organised conferences, seminars,
and field visits.87 It is unclear if these programs or activities
have been evaluated or what they have achieved.

Arab States Report

35

REGIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS
In a joint report with IOM published in 2015, we detailed vulnerabilities
faced by migrant workers in the Arab States region and set out a range ofmeasures to increase protection. While acknowledging that governments in
the region were faced with competing priorities such as security, terrorism,and humanitarian assistance for refugees and internally displaced people,
the recommendations set out in that report were intended to address thefollowing overarching issues:›› Pervasive discrimination against migrants.
›› Lack of protection in labour law for particularly highrisk groups such as domestic workers, and the role ofthe kafala system in preventing workers from leaving
abusive employers without permission.
›› Lack of rights awareness among migrant workers.
›› Laws, policies, and attitudes that discriminate against
women.
›› The need to improve victim identification, including
among refugee populations.
›› The need to ensure victims of trafficking are not being
routinely arrested and detained.
›› The need to strengthen victim support services.
Despite some positive steps in countries throughout theregion, these issues and the related recommendations arestill relevant today.

Strengthen legislation›› Governments should ratify and implement ILO
Convention 189 on Domestic Workers and translate
it into national legislation to ensure protection for
migrant workers.
›› Ensure all workers are granted equal protection undernational labour laws. Where necessary, reform labourlaws should ensure this.

›› Ensure all migrant workers are physically present
when work permits are issued and renewed to ensurethat the workers are willing to work and/or remain in
their current employment and their employers do notfraudulently retain the workers without their consent.
›› Ensure that migrant workers are able to freely leave ortransfer jobs and to exit the country without employer
consent and abolish provisions in the law that might
criminalise victims’ flight from exploitative situations.
›› Provide a period of amnesty for migrant workers
without proper residency or exit clearances, andwhen doing so, ensure that such processes do not
circumvent worker’s rights by forcing them to leave
without receiving the pay owed.
›› Build the capacity of prosecutors, lawyers, andthe judiciary for a deeper understanding of when
the labour law or counter-trafficking law should beapplied. Where there is a complex or significant
case load, develop the capacity of the judiciary byassigning a specialised judge to handle cases oftrafficking.
›› Investigate ways to minimise the duration of litigation
procedures for migrant workers; for example, establish
private courts with specialist judges. Migrant workers
should be able to have expedited processes so they
are not compelled to choose between legal recourse
and leaving the country.

36

Global Slavery Index 2018

Improve victim support›› Ensure national referral mechanisms are in place
to improve coordination and cooperation between
government agencies, and between government andnon-government actors, and ensure responses are
victim-centred.
›› Ensure improvements in, and increased access to,
psychosocial support, legal aid, medical care andrehabilitative services from trained specialists forvictims. These efforts will be facilitated by ensuring
victims are given sufficient time to recover when at
shelters and that appropriate visas – decoupled fromparticipation in legal proceedings – are available forvictims.
›› Ensure legal aid is available as a standard part of victim
support. This is crucial, to include not just access tolegal assistance through the assignment of pro bonolawyers for litigation, but also for lawyers to provide
victims with necessary information regarding rights
and options and empower them to make decisions forthe future, including on the investigation and litigation
process.
›› Provide temporary protection visas for workers
who wish to remain in the country to pursue legal
proceedings (both civil and criminal), with provisions
to allow them to work or financial aid to support
themselves for the duration of proceedings.
›› Ensure that victims are shielded from any abusers(employers, recruiters, and others) throughout therecovery period and legal proceedings.
›› Ensure systems are in place to enable trained officials
to waive overstay fines for migrant workers who havesuffered exploitation and abuse and permit them toleave the country. Ensure this process is fast-tracked
so migrant workers do not languish in holding facilities
awaiting processing of their fine waiver.
›› Focus greater attention on conflict areas where
vulnerability to slavery is extremely high in orderto prevent further exacerbating these risks. GCC
countries should allocate and increase direct funding
to organisations (CSOs, INGOs, UN) providing
targeted anti-trafficking services to vulnerable groups
and identified victims.

Strengthen coordinationand transparency›› Government leaders and ministers can show
leadership by making clear statements on theimportance of preventing all forms of modern slavery,
directing government departments to take action, andthen holding officials to account for their action or
inaction.
›› Ensure that efforts to address modern slavery include
measurement of the extent and nature of the issue,
as well as risk factors so the impact of progress canbe effectively monitored.
›› Where not already in existence, governments
should establish a national coordinating committee
at a senior level, including representatives from civilsociety, to develop and ensure implementation ofnational policies on this issue. Such committees must:–– Act as an interface with other parts of government
working on related issues, such as the responseto the refugee crisis and discrimination against
women;–– Streamline the work of ministries to avoid duplicationand ensure each ministry’s responsibilities are clear
to ensure accountability across government; and–– Enhance cooperation between government andNGOs, civil society, and embassies to better
streamline service delivery to victims and improvecooperation and partnership regionally andinternationally.
›› Ensure training is provided on identifying andresponding to victims for regulatory and nonregulatory first responders, as well as those in law
enforcement and staff/officials involved in refugee
intake and support services.
›› Create a specialised operational team – drawing
from key agencies such as social services, law
enforcement, refugee and labour relations, andincluding victim support services – with specifictraining in identification of cases of human trafficking
and responding to their cases. In addition to
responding to specific cases, this team can advise
non-specialist regulatory and non-regulatory first
responder officers on victim identification andhandling and can undertake regular liaison withembassy officials from relevant sending countries.
›› Establish an interregional cooperation to build andextend knowledge exchange between countries in
the Arab States and countries of origin of migrant
workers.

Arab States Report

Address risk factors›› Conduct widespread, systematic education
campaigns to counter stereotypical attitudes of
migrant workers and promote diversity. Involve
schools, universities, and religious leaders, andpublicise widely on radio, television, and print media.
›› Make a concerted effort to cause attitudinal change
through targeted awareness programmes on thevalue of domestic workers to society.
›› Undertake targeted national campaigns to combat
passport withholding by making it both socially
unacceptable and high risk. Ensure cases of
employers or agents who are prosecuted for passport
withholding, or other crimes related to abusing or
trafficking migrant workers, are highly publicised.
›› Scale up support for displaced persons, andparticularly women and girls, in conflict zones in orderto prevent trafficking and exploitation.
›› Countries affected by conflict should, as a priority,
focus on protection of women and girls to mitigate
the effects of gender-based violence, including forced
sexual exploitation and forced marriage. Further,governments across the region should repeatedly
and forcefully condemn the practices of terrorist
and militia groups, particularly those engaged in theenslavement and sale of women and girls.
›› Recognise the importance of gender to any modern
slavery response by mainstreaming understanding of
women’s rights into national strategies.
›› Support the empowerment of women and girls by
ensuring access to education for all.

37

Eradicate modern slavery fromthe economy›› Ensure regulation of recruitment agencies according
to the principles and standards of ethical recruitment
set out in the IOM International Recruitment Integrity
System Code of Conduct.
›› Investigate, prosecute, and, in severe cases, withdraw
practicing licenses of recruitment agencies that
deceive workers, ignore reports of exploitation,or forcibly return workers to abusive employers.
Obligate agencies to notify authorities immediately
when cases of abuse are found – fine companies who
fail to report.
›› Investigate and prosecute employers who commit
criminal violence against migrant workers and who
confiscate workers’ passports, restrict movement, andwithhold wages.
›› Blacklist employers, recruiters, or companies thathave proven records of abuse of migrant workers.
Prevent known offenders from employing domestic
workers in their private homes.
›› Introduce legislation that all government procurement
providers take steps to detect and eliminate modern
slavery from publicly funded supply chains.
›› Support the training and capacity building for labour
inspectors to identify cases of modern slavery in boththe formal and informal sectors.
›› Ensure labour inspections are conducted in sectors
known to be high risk for modern slavery to identify
victims of modern slavery.

38

Global Slavery Index 2018

APPENDIX:
Endnotes

1‘Qatar abolishes controversial ‘kafala’ labour system,’ BBC News,
13 December 2016. Available from: http://www.bbc.com/news/worldmiddle-east-38298393. [17 December 2017].

2

McCormack, S, Joudo Larsen, J & Abul Husn, H 2015, The Other Migrant
Crisis: Protecting Migrant Workers Against exploitation in the Middle Eastand North Africa, International Organization for Migration & Walk Free
Foundation, p. 13. Available from: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/
pdf/other_migrant_crisis.pdf. [ 02 February 2018].

3

International Labour Organization 2017, Complaint concerning nonobservance by Qatar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29),
and the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), made by delegatesto the 103rd Session (2014) of the International Labour Conference underarticle 26 of the ILO Constitution, International Labour Office. Available
from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/
documents/meetingdocument/wcms_586479.pdf. [20 February 2018].

4

Human Rights Watch 2018, Qatar Country Report 2018, Human Rights
Watch. Available from: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/countrychapters/qatar. [19 February 2018].

5International Labour Organization 2017, Complaint concerning nonobservance by Qatar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29),
and the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), made by delegatesto the 103rd Session (2014) of the International Labour Conference underarticle 26 of the ILO Constitution, International Labour Office. Available
from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/
documents/meetingdocument/wcms_586479.pdf. [20 February 2018].

6

7

8

9

10

Harwood, A 2018, ‘Qatar to pay back workers’ recruitment fees in$5m restoration,’ Global Construction Review, 15 March. Available from:http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/qatar-pay-back-workersrecruitment-fees-5m-restora/. [29 March 2018].
Ghani, F 2018, ‘Qatar lifts exit permit system for migrant workers’,
Al Jazeera. Available from:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/qatar-lifts-exit-permit-systemmigrants-workers-180905092910224.html. [6 September 2018].
Ramos dos Santos, A 2006, ‘What pays What? Cashless payment
in Ancient Mesopotamia (626-331 BC),’ paper presented to the XIVInternational Economic History Congress, Helsinki, Finland,
21 to 25 August. Available from: http://www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers1/
Ramos2.pdf. [accessed 28 March 2018].
McCormack, S, Joudo Larsen, J & Abul Husn, H 2015, The Other
Migrant Crisis: Protecting Migrant Workers Against exploitation in the
Middle East and North Africa, International Organization for Migration& Walk Free Foundation, p. 12. Available from: https://publications.
iom.int/system/files/pdf/other_migrant_crisis.pdf. [ 02 February 2018].
International Organization for Migration 2017, Fatal Journeys, vol.3,
no. 2, IOM. Available from: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/
fatal_journeys_3_part2.pdf. [26 February 2018].
International Organization for Migration 2017, Fatal Journeys, vol.3,
no. 2, IOM. Available from: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/
fatal_journeys_3_part2.pdf. [26 February 2018].

11

International Labour Office 2015, ILO Global estimates of migrant workers
and migrant domestic workers: results and methodology, ILO. Available
from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_436343.pdf. [7 Feb 2018].

12

Fottrell, S 2015, ‘Qatar migrant workers describe ‘pathetic’ conditions,’
BBC News, 21 May. Available from: http://www.bbc.com/news/worldmiddle-east-32822016. [26 February 2018]. Human Rights Council
2016, Report of the Special Rapporteur trafficking in persons, especiallywomen and children, on her mission to Jordan, United Nations General
Assembly. Available from: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/
GEN/G16/115/46/PDF/G1611546.pdf?OpenElement. [27 February 2018].

13

International Labour Organization 2016, Migrant Work & Employment in
the Construction Sector, ILO. Available from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/
groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---migrant/documents/publication/
wcms_538487.pdf. [26 February 2018].

14International Labour Organization & Walk Free Foundation 2017,
Methodology: Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour andForced Marriage, ILO & WFF, p. 78. Available from: http://www.ilo.org/
wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---ipec/documents/publication/
wcms_586127.pdf. [31 January 2018].

15‘Qatar abolishes controversial ‘kafala’ labour system,’ BBC News.
13 December 2016. Available from: http://www.bbc.com/news/worldmiddle-east-38298393. [17 December 2017].

16

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
About OCHA Yemen. Available from: https://www.unocha.org/yemen/
about-ocha-yemen. [29 March 2018].

17

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
The Syria crisis in numbers. Available from: https://www.unocha.org/story/
syria-crisis-numbers. [29 March 2018].

18

International Labour Organization & Walk Free Foundation 2017,
Methodology of the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labourand Forced Marriage, ILO, p. 10. Available from: http://www.ilo.org/global/
topics/forced-labour/publications/WCMS_586127/lang--en/index.htm.
[14 March 2017].

19

Analyses were conducted by Gallup, Inc. and WFF and are describedin full in a forthcoming paper: Diego-Rosell P & Joudo Larsen J(forthcoming), Modelling the risk of modern slavery.

20“Child marriage on the rise among Syrian refugee girls in Jordan”,
Al Jazeera, 18 April 2018, available from: https://www.aljazeera.com/
news/2018/04/child-marriage-rise-syrian-refugeegirls-180418084029464.html. [15 June 2018].

21“New study finds child marriage rising among most vulnerable
Syrian refugees”, UNFPA News, 31 January 2017, Available from: https://www.unfpa.org/news/new-study-finds-child-marriage-rising-among-mostvulnerable-syrian-refugees#. [March 2017]22

Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) 2016, A Girl no More: The
Changing Norms of Child Marriage in Conflict, Women’s RefugeeCommission, Available from: https://www.womensrefugeecommission.
org/girls/resources/1311-girl-no-more. [April 2017].

Arab States Report

23

Bartels, SA, et al. “Making sense of child, early and forced marriage
among Syrian refugee girls: A mixed methods study in Lebanon”, BMJ
Global Health, vol. 3, no. 1, Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pmc/articles/PMC5838398/. [13 June 2018].

24

International Organization for Migration 2017, Fatal Journeys, vol.3,
no. 2, IOM. Available from: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/
fatal_journeys_3_part2.pdf. [26 February 2018].

25

International Organization for Migration (IOM) 2018, Iraq Mission
Displacement Tracking Matrix. Available from: http://iraqdtm.iom.int/.
[3 April 2018].

26

United Nations General Assembly 2016, Trafficking in persons, especiallywomen and children: Note by the Secretary-General, United Nations
General Assembly. Available from: https://undocs.org/A/71/303.
[27 February 2018].

27

Human Rights Council 2016, Report of the Special Rapporteur
trafficking in persons, especially women and children, on her mission to
Jordan, United Nations General Assembly, p. 7. Available from: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G16/115/46/PDF/G1611546.
pdf?OpenElement. [27 February 2018].

28

Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Iraq,
United Nations Security Council, 9 November 2015, p. 9.

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights &United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Report on the Protection of
Civilians in the Armed Conflict in Iraq: 1 May – 31 October 2015, OHCHR
and UNAMI, p. 14.
‘Establish extremism ideas in children through education, influences andpsychological changes: Report 1,’ Iraq Institute for Development,
28 June 2016.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights &United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Report on the Protection of
Civilians in the Armed Conflict in Iraq: 1 May – 31 October 2015, OHCHR
and UNAMI, p. 14.
International Labour Office 2015, ILO Global estimates of migrant workers
and migrant domestic workers: results and methodology, ILO. Available
from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_436343.pdf. [7 Feb 2018].
Qatar Ministry of Development Planning & Statistics, Labor Force Sample
Survey: The first quarter of 2015, Table 6. Available from: http:// www.qix.
gov.qa/portal/page/portal/QIXPOC/Documents/QIX%20Knowledge%20
Base/Publication/Labor%20Force%20Researches/ labor%20force%20
sample%20survey/Source_QSA/Labor_Force_Quarterly_Jan_Mar_
Statistics_MDPS_AE_Q1_2015.pdf. [11 March 2016].
Fottrell, S 2015, ‘Qatar migrant workers describe ‘pathetic’ conditions,’
BBC News, 21 May. Available from: http://www.bbc.com/news/worldmiddle-east-32822016. [26 February 2018]. Human Rights Council
2016, Report of the Special Rapporteur trafficking in persons, especiallywomen and children, on her mission to Jordan, United Nations General
Assembly. Available from: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/
GEN/G16/115/46/PDF/G1611546.pdf?OpenElement. [27 February 2018].
International Labour Organization 2016, Migrant Work & Employment in
the Construction Sector, ILO. Available from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/
groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---migrant/documents/publication/
wcms_538487.pdf. [26 February 2018].
Human Rights Watch 2017, #MeToo, Say Domestic Workers in the Middle
East, Human Rights Watch, 08 December. Available from: https://www.
hrw.org/news/2017/12/08/metoo-say-domestic-workers-middle-east.
[26 February 2018].

39

40

UNICEF 2014, A study on early marriage in Jordan 2014, UNICEF,
p. 8. Available from: https://www.unicef.org/mena/UNICEFJordan_
EarlyMarriageStudy2014.pdf. [26 February 2018].

41

Care International UK 2015, ‘To Protect Her Honour’ Child marriage
in emergencies – the fatal confusion between protecting girls andsexual violence, Care International, p. 7. Available from: http://insights.
careinternational.org.uk/media/k2/attachments/CARE_Child-marriage-inemergencies_2015.pdf. [26 February 2018].

42

United Nations University 2017, Cradled by Conflict, United Nations
University, p. 131. Available from: https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/
UNU:6409/Cradled_by_Conflict.pdf. [26 February 2018].

43

Lungarotti, L, Craggs, S & Tillinac, A 2015, ‘Trafficking in persons intimes of crises ‒ a neglected protection concern: the case of Iraq,’
Humanitarian Policy Group of the Overseas Development Institute.
Available from: https://odihpn.org/magazine/human-trafficking-in-crisesa-neglected-protection-concern/. [3 April 2018]. McCormack, S, Joudo
Larsen, J & Abul Husn, H 2015, The Other Migrant Crisis: Protecting
Migrant Workers Against exploitation in the Middle East and North
Africa, International Organization for Migration & Walk Free Foundation,
p. 12. Available from: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/other_migrant_crisis.pdf. [02 February 2018].

44

Estimates for the region are likely to significantly underestimate the scaleof modern slavery due to substantial gaps in the available data.

45

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2018,
Humanitarian Response Plan: Yemen, UNOCHA, p. 7. Available from:https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-response-planjanuary-december-2018. [01 February 2018].

46

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2018,
Humanitarian Response Plan: Yemen, UNOCHA, p. 4. Available from:https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-response-planjanuary-december-2018. [01 February 2018].

47

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2018,
Humanitarian Response Plan: Yemen, UNOCHA. Available from: https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-response-plan-januarydecember-2018. [01 February 2018].

48

McCormack, S, Joudo Larsen, J & Abul Husn, H 2015, The Other Migrant
Crisis: Protecting Migrant Workers Against exploitation in the Middle Eastand North Africa, International Organization for Migration & Walk Free
Foundation, p. 12. Available from: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/
pdf/other_migrant_crisis.pdf. [02 February 2018].

49

International Labour Organization n.d., Labour Migration in the ArabStates, ILO. Available from: http://www.ilo.org/beirut/areasofwork/labourmigration/WCMS_514910/lang--en/index.htm. [02 February 2018].

50

Human Rights Watch 2017, Working Like a Robot: Abuse of TanzanianDomestic Workers in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, Human Rights
Watch. Available from: https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/11/14/workingrobot/abuse-tanzanian-domestic-workers-oman-and-united-arabemirates. [02 February 2018].

51

Human Rights Watch 2017, United Arab Emirates, Human Rights Watch.
Available from: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/
united-arab-emirates. [02 February 2018].

52

Hutchinson, S & Marczak, N 2017, The ongoing plight of the Yazidis, Lowy
Institute. Available from: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/
ongoing-plight-yazidis. [02 February 2018].

53

Council on Foreign Relations 2018, Civil War in Syria, Council on Foreign
Relations. Available from: https://www.cfr.org/interactives/global-conflicttracker#!/conflict/civil-war-in-syria. [02 February 2018].

37

As above.

54

38

Human Rights Watch 2016, I Was Sold’ Abuse and exploitation of migrant
domestic workers in Oman, Human Rights Watch. Available from: https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/07/13/i-was-sold/abuse-and-exploitationmigrant-domestic-workers-oman. [26 February 2018].

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2018,
Humanitarian Response Plan: Yemen, UNOCHA, p. 5. Available from:https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-response-planjanuary-december-2018. [01 February 2018].

55

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2017,
The UN remains deeply concerned for the safety of civilian populations,
UNOCHA. Available from: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/
resources/HC%20statement%209%20October%202017%20.pdf.
[02 February 2018].

39

Human Rights Council 2017, Report of the Special Rapporteur on
trafficking in persons, especially women and children, on her mission
to Kuwait, United Nations General Assembly. Available from: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G17/097/94/PDF/G1709794.
pdf?OpenElement. [27 February 2018].

40

Global Slavery Index 2018

56

Identified using the 2016 Fragile States Index, where those countries
that scored 10.0 on the Security Apparatus indicator were excluded.
See: http://fundforpeace.org/fsi/2016/06/27/fragile-states-index-2016annual-report/.

57

58

59

71

‘Qatar abolishes controversial ‘kafala’ labour system,’ BBC News,
13 December 2016. Available from: http://www.bbc.com/news/worldmiddle-east-38298393. [17 December 2017].

Kuttappan, R 2018, Jobs of 17,000 migrant workers in man in jeopardy
as nationalisation process gains momentum, Migrant-Rights.org,
24 February. Available from: https://www.migrant-rights.org/2018/02/
jobs-of-17000-migrant-workers-in-oman-in-jeopardy-as-nationalisationprocess-gains-momentum/. [03 April 2018].

72

McCormack, S, Joudo Larsen, J & Abul Husn, H 2015, The Other Migrant
Crisis: Protecting Migrant Workers Against exploitation in the Middle Eastand North Africa, International Organization for Migration & Walk Free
Foundation, p. 13. Available from: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/
pdf/other_migrant_crisis.pdf. [ 02 February 2018].

‘Saudi Arabia dismisses talk of migrant labour reforms,’ The New Arab,
9 January 2017. Available from: https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/
society/2017/1/9/saudi-arabia-dismisses-talk-of-migrant-labour-reforms.
[25 January 2017].

73

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons 2016, Saudi Arabia
Country Narrative, United States Department of State, p. 325. Available
from: https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/258876.pdf.
[02 February 2018].

74

United Nations Human Rights Council 2017, Report of the Special
Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, on
her mission to Kuwait, United Nations, p. 11. Available from: http://www.
refworld.org/docid/593a9d554.html. [02 February 2018].

75

Personal communication with regional expert, 3 April 2018.
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons 2017, Jordan Country
Narrative, United States Department of State. Available from: https://www.
state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2017/271214.htm. [ 02 February 2018].

International Labour Organization 2017, Complaint concerning nonobservance by Qatar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29),
and the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), made by delegatesto the 103rd Session (2014) of the International Labour Conference underarticle 26 of the ILO Constitution, International Labour Office. Available
from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/
documents/meetingdocument/wcms_586479.pdf. [20 February 2018].

60

Human Rights Watch 2018, Qatar Country Report 2018, Human Rights
Watch. Available from: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/countrychapters/qatar. [19 February 2018].

76

61

International Labour Organization 2017, Complaint concerning nonobservance by Qatar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29),
and the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), made by delegatesto the 103rd Session (2014) of the International Labour Conference underarticle 26 of the ILO Constitution, International Labour Office. Available
from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/
documents/meetingdocument/wcms_586479.pdf. [20 February 2018].

77

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons 2017, Oman Country
Narrative, United States Department of State. Available from: https://www.
state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2017/271257.htm. [ 02 February 2018].

78‘GCC, UK set to foster deeper relations,’ The Gulf Today, 08 December
2016. Available from: http://gulftoday.ae/portal/f2e8efc7-9a11-4a79-9057ba651d00b18a.aspx. [15 February 2018].

79

As above.

80‘Arab experts discuss human trafficking in Muscat,’ Arab News,
5 December 2016. Available from: http://www.arabnews.com/
node/1019576/middle-east. [15 February 2018].

81

Cordesman, A 2017, Gulf Security Looking Beyond the Gulf Cooperation
Council, Center for Strategic and International Studies. Available
from: https://www.csis.org/analysis/gulf-security-looking-beyond-gulfcooperation-council. [15 February 2018].

82

Council on Foreign Relations 2014, The Arab League, Council on Foreign
Relations. Available from: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/arab-league.
[12 February 2018].

83

Population Division Department of Economics and Social Affairs 2017,
Contribution to the Fifteenth coordination meeting on International
Migration League of Arab States (LAS), United Nations Secretariat,
p. 3. Available from: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/
migration/events/coordination/15/documents/papers/7_LAS.pdf.
[15 February 2018].

84

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2016, Remarks at the launchof the Regional Programme for the Arab States (2016-2021), UNODC.
Available from: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/speeches/2016/cairo-090516.html. [15 February 2018].

85

What’s in Blue 2016, Council visiting mission: Meeting with the Leagueof Arab States in Cairo, What’s in Blue. Available from: http://www.
whatsinblue.org/2016/05/council-visiting-mission-meeting-with-theleague-of-arab-states-in-cairo.php#. [15 February 2018].

86

Population Division Department of Economics and Social Affairs 2017,
Contribution to the Fifteenth coordination meeting on International
Migration League of Arab States (LAS), United Nations Secretariat,
p. 5. Available from: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/
migration/events/coordination/15/documents/papers/7_LAS.pdf.
[15 February 2018].

87

Population Division Department of Economics and Social Affairs 2017,
Contribution to the Fifteenth coordination meeting on International
Migration League of Arab States (LAS), United Nations Secretariat,
p. 2. Available from: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/
migration/events/coordination/15/documents/papers/7_LAS.pdf.
[15 February 2018].

62

Harwood, A 2018, ‘Qatar to pay back workers’ recruitment fees in $5m
restoration,’ Global Construction Review, 15 March. Available from: http://
www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/qatar-pay-back-workersrecruitment-fees-5m-restora/. [29 March 2018].

63

Migrant-Rights.org 2017, Bahrain to introduce self sponsorship system in
April, Migrant-Rights.org, 7 March. Available from: https://www.migrantrights.org/2017/03/bahrain-to-introduce-self-sponsorship-system-in-april/.
[02 February 2018].

64

Ghani, F 2018, 'Qatar lifts exit permit system for migrant workers', Al
Jazeera. Available from: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/qatarlifts-exit-permit-system-migrants-workers-180905092910224.html. [6September 2018].

65

As above.

66

Migrant-Rights.org 2018, Assessing Bahrain’s new standard contract fordomestic workers, Migrant-Rights.org, 15 March. Available from: https://www.migrant-rights.org/2018/03/assessing-bahrains-new-standardcontract-for-domestic-workers/. [03 April 2018].

67

Migrant-Rights.org 2017, Kuwait’s domestic labor law: one year later,
Migrant-Rights.org, 12 January. Available from: https://www.migrant-rights.
org/2017/01/kuwaits-domestic-labor-law-one-year-later/. [03 April 2018].

68

Migrant-Rights.org, Kuwait’s domestic labor law: one year later, MigrantRights.org, 12 January. Available from: https://www.migrant-rights.
org/2017/01/kuwaits-domestic-labor-law-one-year-later/. [03 April 2018].
Human Rights Watch 2018, Kuwait, Human Rights Watch. Available from:https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/kuwait.
[03 April 2018].

69

Begum, R 2017, Ethiopian worker survives fall from Kuwait building,Migrant-Rights.org, 3 April. Available from: https://www.hrw.org/
news/2017/04/03/ethiopian-worker-survives-fall-kuwait-building.
[03 April 2018].

70

Migrant-Rights.org 2018, Kuwait extends amnesty for illegal residents:
way out or impasse?, Migrant-Rights.org, 28 February. Available from:https://www.migrant-rights.org/2018/02/kuwait-extends-amnesty-forillegal-residents-way-out-or-impasse/. [03 April 2018].

GLOBALSLAVERYINDEX.ORG