Saudi Arabia sees real efforts to combat human trafficking, protect victims

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has been witnessing significant shifts in protecting human rights over the past years, especially regarding labor rights and combating human trafficking. This is achieved by securing a comprehensive institutional structure that aims at preventing such crimes, punishing the perpetrators, and providing all types of support and protection to victims.

As a result, the Kingdom was ranked higher two times in a row in the past two years in the US State Department's Classification Report on Human Trafficking.

The Committee has stated that such successes resulted from developing the legal and institutional architecture to promote human rights in an embodiment of the Kingdom's established approach that humans come first and their rights must be protected and secured.

In line with the Kingdom's pursuit to promote partnerships and cooperation with international organizations in the field of combating human trafficking, the Human Rights Commission has recently concluded the Second Phase of the Agreement with the IOM and the UN Office on Drug and Crime in the context of the MoUs signed with them, to continue the Kingdom's endeavors in combating human trafficking in the Kingdom, implement the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking of 2021-2023, establish a standard mechanism to support victims and to support and enhance the national capabilities to effectively combat human trafficking according to international standards and best practices.

The National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking has stated that the decisions adopted recently enable the domestic worker to transfer their services to another employer without notice to the current employer in various cases.

For Instance, when the domestic worker's services are transferred to another employer without their knowledge, abuse of the domestic worker by the employer, renting out the domestic worker's services to others without their knowledge, assigning the worker to do jobs that pose a threat to their health and safety or delaying their pay.

The committee indicated that in the process of intensifying the efforts to combat electronic human trafficking, controls were laid out for electronic advertisement of recruitment activities and provision of labor services. It stressed that the advertisement should not include any words or expressions that might hurt the dignity of expatriates and domestic workers and the like.

The committee confirms that it continuously follows up and monitors all advertising violations published on websites and digital platforms concerning labor services and associated human trafficking crimes. It further reiterates its keenness on applying all legal procedures according to the applicable laws in the Kingdom and, in particular, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law. — SG