Expert on Trafficking in Persons Ends Visit to Qatar

12 November 2006

Ms. Sigma Huda, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, made the following statement to media today in Doha, at the end of her visit to Qatar:

Permit me first of all to thank the Government for inviting me to Qatar. I am honoured to be the first Special Rapporteur to be able to visit this country and hope that this will be the first step in a continued fruitful cooperation between Qatar and the United Nations Special Rapporteurs and other human rights mechanisms of the Human Rights Council.

I would also like to commend the Government for the openness and cooperation it has demonstrated in the course of my 5-days fact-finding mission to Qatar. I have been granted access to all state facilities I had requested to visit, including a deportation centre. In addition, I had the chance to consult with senior government officials, members of the judiciary, lawyers, senior diplomats, United Nations officials as well as representatives of the civil society and victims themselves. I would like to thank everybody for taking the time to meet with me and discuss frankly the human trafficking situation in Qatar.

In simplifying an internationally accepted definition of human trafficking, one can say that a person is trafficked if he, or more typically, she is brought into a situation of economic or sexual exploitation – including prostitution – by force, coercion, abduction, fraud or deception. I would like to clarify that a person can be trafficked across an international border even if he or she holds a valid visa. There can also be human trafficking within one and the same country. My mandate as Special Rapporteur aims to protect the human rights of trafficked persons, while preventing other human beings from falling victims to this crime. The issue of demand for all forms of exploitation and the push- and pull-factors relating to exploitation are also concerns covered by my mandate.

I am pleased to note that the Government has recognized human trafficking as a problem and has been taking measures to address it. The Government is in the process of drafting an anti-trafficking law. I hope that the Government will also take prompt steps to ratify the Palermo Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and bring the related laws into conformity with its provisions.

Yet much remains to be done for the Government to implement Qatar’s international obligations related to human trafficking. In the course of my mission, I have found that a number of human beings, including women, travel to Qatar in order to make a living for themselves and earn money to send to the families and loved ones they leave thousands of kilometres behind. Some of these migrant workers are often lured in their country of origin by unscrupulous recruiting agents with false promises of a certain job or certain working conditions. More often than not they are shocked to find themselves in exploitative situations upon arrival. These workers also become trapped in a spiral of debt both in their countries of origin where they sold their land and assets to pay brokers and recruiting agencies and in the countries of destination where in case of breaches of immigration and labour laws they must pay fines if they wish to return home. I commend the Government for trying to control the recruiting agencies by requesting a deposit of approximately USD 70,000 as a guarantee for complying with the labour standards. Non-compliance would mean cancellation of the registration and forfeiture of the guarantee. In this regard, I would like to recommend that the Government make public the list of those companies and sponsors that have been sanctioned for non compliance with the labour legislation. The Penal Code of Qatar has criminalized forced labour but, due to lack of enforcement, perpetrators are not brought to justice.

Many families – a majority I would hope – respect the dignity and human rights of their domestic workers. Some even come to treat their domestic migrant workers like members of their own families. However, other domestic workers are less fortunate and are subject to degrading conditions. Long working hours, lack of sleep and rest, withholding or delay in the payment of wages and non-renewal of visas are common complaints. Some employers also confine domestic migrant workers in the house, confiscating their passports and depriving them of access to basic means of communication such as the telephone or mail. During my mission, I also learned that physical, sexual and mental abuse is a problem for some of these migrant workers.

I am particularly concerned that a significant number among the migrant workers in Qatar become victims of human trafficking. In particular I found that female domestic migrant workers are the most disadvantaged, in that they remain excluded from the protection of the current labour legislation. Instead, it is largely left up to the benevolence and human compassion of the employers, whether the human rights of the workers are upheld or not.

Unfortunately, the plight of these migrant workers seems to remain unknown, perhaps because the victims tend to be foreign nationals or are considered to be of low social status. Victims of trafficking are often invisible victims because they suffer in places that remain hidden to the public eye, such as private homes, hotel rooms or labour camps.

Whilst noting that judicial mechanisms and procedure exists to settle labour disputes, access to justice for domestic and other migrant workers with complaints of abuse and maltreatment remains inadequate as victims feel intimidated to pursue criminal and labour cases, legal proceedings are lengthy and often do not provide for counsel and interpretation. Whilst visiting the deportation centre, I also found that many female migrant workers are detained for long periods, have limited contact with their families, are not informed on the status of their case and live in congested conditions. This calls for urgent attention from the Qatari authorities as well as embassies and consular offices.

Applicable international standards oblige Qatar to identify and treat victims of human trafficking as victims. However, domestic workers who flee situations of exploitation and abuse are frequently re-victimized. Their cases often fail to be investigated with due diligence by the authorities and the victims are considered to be irregular migrants whose visas lapsed once they fled from exploitative or abusive employers. In many cases these victims end up in a detention centre before being deported, while the perpetrators enjoy impunity.

As a positive development, I would like to mention the establishment of the office of National Coordinator on Human Trafficking and the creation of a shelter which can accommodate victims of abuse and exploitation including domestic migrant workers. I encourage the Government to take steps in order to introduce mechanisms which will ensure that victims of trafficking are properly identified and treated as such so that appropriate support services may be provided to them. I would also like to commend the work of the National Human Rights Committee in monitoring the implementation of the legislation banning camel jockeys and in following up the reintegration of the child victims in their countries of origin. I would like to encourage the Committee to also monitor the situation of foreign migrant workers in camel farms.

With regard to the protection of foreign migrant workers including trafficked persons, I would like to call upon the authorities of sending countries, including embassies and consulates, to build on the good practices in terms of comprehensive protection programmes that are already in place for some groups such as for example the Philipino migrant workers. In this regard, it was also reported that there are no uniform standards of minimum wages and certain embassies or consular offices have taken on themselves to create such standards. Cooperation and coordination among embassies and consulates of the countries of origin could be further strengthened in order to ensure that there are no gaps in the protection of victims of abuse and exploitation.

As Qatar gets ready to host the 15th Asian Games when a large number of visitors are expected, I would like to encourage the Government to be vigilant so as to prevent an increase in illegal activities, including trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Finally, I would like to express specific concern about the reports I received of girls who are recruited as domestic migrant workers even though they are minors. Recruiters both in the countries of origin and Qatar create documents falsifying the age of the minors in order to gain access to the country.

In my public report, I will offer the Government my recommendations which will be aimed at eliminating trafficking in persons and enhancing the protection of the human rights of the victims. I hope that national authorities, the international community as well as civil society can work together towards this end.

Biographical Note:
Sigma Huda is a lawyer and human rights defender in Bangladesh. She has been serving as the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons since October 2004. In this capacity, she has visited Bosnia and Herzegovina in February 2005 and Lebanon in 2006. She has recently travelled in the three Gulf States of Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.