Bahrain has been removed from a US human trafficking ‘watch list’ and praised for its ‘significant efforts’ in preventing the illegal practice.

The latest US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, which was released yesterday (July 27) by Secretary of State John Kerry, found that Bahrain had investigated and prosecuted 21 trafficking cases in the past year, involving 51 suspects and 56 victims, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

“According to the Public Prosecutor, five of these cases involved forced labour offences and 16 included sex trafficking crimes,” said the report.

“The government identified 50 suspected trafficking victims in 2014, a significant increase from the 21 victims identified in 2013.

“Of these victims, 40 were identified as sex trafficking victims and 10 as forced labour victims.”

As a result of this improvement, Bahrain has had its status upgraded from the report’s “Tier 2 watch list”, which is reserved for countries that require additional scrutiny, to simply “Tier 2” – in recognition of the government’s significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with international standards.

The annual report places 188 countries into tiers based on their trafficking records and ranked Bahrain alongside Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE, but ahead of Qatar and Kuwait.

Countries with some of the world’s worst trafficking records include Iran, Syria  North Korea and Zimbabwe.

“This year’s report places a special emphasis on human trafficking in the global marketplace,” said Mr Kerry at the report’s launch yesterday.

“It highlights the hidden risks that workers may encounter when seeking employment and the steps that governments and businesses can take to prevent trafficking, including a demand for transparency in global supply chains.”

The report praised Bahrain for bringing its first-ever criminal prosecution for a forced labour offence in 2014 and for the 63 prosecutions of labour violations – up from zero the previous year.

It highlighted work done by the Social Development Ministry’s 120-bed shelter for trafficking victims, but did find failings elsewhere.

“When investigating claims of abuse from domestic workers that ran away from their employers, some police stations reportedly followed up immediately, while others let days or weeks lapse between attempts to contact the employer by phone,” said the report.

“This failure to immediately investigate claims of abuse and potential trafficking crimes left victims at risk of further exploitation and without protection services.

“Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also report that male Bangladeshi unskilled workers are in high demand and are considered by employers to be exploitable as they typically do not protest difficult work conditions or low pay.”

The report was also critical of Bahrain for subjecting victims of human trafficking to criminal proceedings over employment or immigration violations, but did note that this had decreased significantly from previous years.

The country’s sponsorship system also came under fire as being a significant contributor “to forced labour and debt bondage”.

Lengthy court procedures, a lack of interpretation and translation services and a fear of cancellation of residence permits were all given as reasons for workers not filing complaints against their employers by the report, which was compiled from information gathered by US diplomats, domestic agencies, government officials, local and international NGOs, journalists and academics.

Elsewhere, it found that the Labour Ministry had investigated 600 cases in 2014 – 377 related to the non-payment of wages and 223 cases where a passport had been withheld.

More than 60 of these cases were subsequently referred to the Public Prosecutor.

Praise was also given to the Labour Market Regulatory Authority for monitoring domestic workers’ places of employment and distributing pamphlets in English and 13 other languages to foreign workers about migrant workers’ rights. - TradeArabia News Service