Understandings and Approaches to Human Trafficking in the Middle East

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In 2013, the ILO (International Labour Organization) reported the Middle East to be the primary destination for trafficking victims, as they calculated that there are around 600,000 forced labour victims within the region to date (13). This seemingly widespread issue of human trafficking within the Middle East has been subject to significant media coverage and global debate. There are three major elements at the centre of this debate: issues around the interpretations of the widely accepted UN’s Palermo Protocol’s definition of human trafficking, concerns in regards to the depictions of victims of human trafficking, and questions regarding what are the most effective strategies in preventing certain kinds of trafficking. As much of the media coverage, research, and policies have tended to focus on sex trafficking of women and girls within the Middle East, Mahdavi and Sargent argue in “Questioning the Discursive Construction of Trafficking and Forced Labour in the United Arab Emirates” that this has overshadowed “the instances of forced labour experienced by migrant workers outside of the sex industry” (9). Thus diverting attention away from a needed reform of the kafala system in which could have the capacity to address the issue of human trafficking and migrant rights on a broader scale (13). While the 2013 ILO report, “Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East” signifies a step forward within the discourses of human trafficking within the region (as its research is focused on those who work outside of the sex industry), Mahdavi and Sargent highlight the need for deeper understandings of the many forms that human trafficking can take as well as the need for the opportunity for victims to “contribute their own nar...

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...icking in the Middle East as well as looking past gender, racial, and classist biases that may affect their perceptions of human trafficking and who it inherently affects. Migrant workers remain the most vulnerable to trafficking within the region and thus a reform of the kafala system as well as policies directed specifically at protecting migrant workers seem to be some of the crucial elements in the preventing forced labour and poor conditions of workers within the region.

Works Cited

Haroff-Tavel, Helene, and Alix Nasri. Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the
Middle East. Beirut: International Labour Oraganization, 2013. Web.

Mahdavi, Pardis, and Christine Sargent. "Questioning the Discursive Construction of
Trafficking and Forced Labor In the United Arab Emirates." Journal of Middle
East Women's Studies 7.3 (2011): 6,35,130-131. ProQuest. Web.

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