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Bahrain on alert for girl-trafficking rise
By Robert Smith
January 24, 2005
Bahraini authorities are being warned of a possible increase in human
trafficking, from countries hit by the tsunami disaster. Human rights workers
say they are particularly worried about a potential influx of underage women
who may have lost their relatives, homes and livelihoods in the disaster. They
are especially concerned about countries such as Indonesia, from where human
traffickers were already reportedly shipping girls to the Gulf and elswhere.
Human rights workers and immigration officials have described Indonesia as a
significant source of illegal immigrants to Bahrain - girls as young as 14 are
known to have been shipped here on fake passports to work as housemaids.
Some were allegedly beaten by their employers once they got here.
In November 2003, a 14-year-old Indonesian maid ran away from her sponsor in
Bahrain after being hit over the head with a glass.
In another case, a 13-year-old Indonesian girl was sent home to her family
after being allegedly beaten by her Bahraini employers for making mistakes.
There are also reports of housemaids being raped or not being paid by their
sponsors, who often go unpunished since domestic workers are not covered by
labour laws.
"A large percentage of women coming to the Gulf are below 18 years old," said
Nabeel Rajab, president of the now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights
(BCHR) and founder member of the original Migrant Workers Group (MWG).
"A lot were being trafficked from villages or sold by their parents to
recruiting agents in Indonesia.
"We have warned the Indonesian government several times through the Embassy in
Kuwait to ensure that women leaving the country are the same as the person in
their passport."
Indonesia was the worst affected country by the earthquake on December 26.
Some estimates suggest the final death toll there alone could pass 200,000.
Human rights workers in Bahrain are now worried that survivors will be picked
up by unscrupulous middlemen, handed over to recruitment agencies in Jakarta
and sent to the Gulf.
"Lots of people there have lost their parents," said Mr Rajab.
"I am afraid that they will be sold or offered to agents in Jakarta, who will
send them to the Gulf.
"It takes time and we may not see anything for a month or more, but we expect
to notice an increase in the near future."
There have already been calls in Bahrain to ban the import of labour from
countries such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka, which do not have embassies here to
represent their citizens.
However, Sri Lanka has now introduced a new system to make it more difficult to
forge passports.
"They must have their picture scanned onto the passport," a Bahrain immigration
spokesman told the GDN.
"But we may be more worried about Indonesian passports because people's
photographs can be removed and replaced with somebody else's.
"We have to make sure the passport holder is the same person as the name on the
passport and we have notified our staff at the airport to do this."
The US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
has said initial fears of paedophiles preying on orphaned children may have
been blown out of proportion.
However, it acknowledged that many people could be lured overseas with the
promise of jobs or education that never materialise in the coming months.
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Tsunami
orphans at sexual abuse risk
1-3-2005
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