I.

Thesis
The paper purpose is to be an exhaustive research for what the previous literature have
mentioned about human trafficking in the Middle East.
II. Argument
Gulf countries hold the highest concentration of migrant workers in the world
14 million migrants, indians being the biggest group (around 3 million)
Middle Eastern Countries:
Israel is the destination for commercialised sex trafficking and coercive labor
trafficking.
Iraq aftermath of war in 2003 faced cases of kidnapping and abduction of
individuals (Foreign) for the purpose of trafficking.
Ethiopian women specifically are trafficked into gulf, women enter gulf countries
through Umra and Hajj.
Some Asian and Yemeni kids are trafficked in the form of begging in Islamic
places like mosques*
War and chaos was/ is used to lure victims, example people coming from Southeast
Asian countries promised by local and Jordanian agencies to be given a job. However,
they were taken to Iraq and left there.
Information resources are incomplete and perhaps bias.
Human Rights Report on Trafficking of Persons, Especially Women and Children
(protection project) - the study is not about the phenomenon of trafficking itself
U.S TIP report - political relationships between US and other states
The annual trafficking report [only] includes those countries determined
to have a significant number of victims of severe forms of trafficking
ILO: there is an increase in the number of women migrating to gulf countries for work.
Sponsors and Middlemen are a big source of the recruitment of migrants in the Middle
East.
Most common form of Human Trafficking in the Middle East is the abuse of workers.
Migrants residing illegally in the countries of destination are more exposed to
this kind of abuses, but legal migrants are also subjected to exploitation. (p. 12)
House v.s company visas under the kafala system in UAE. (p. 13)
Child trafficking as jockeys in camel races. They are either kidnapped or sold by their
parents.
Women trafficking through marriage.
III. Concerns
Lack of details for different kinds of trafficking.
Lack of empirical data
 How did the perception of human trafficking changed in the Middle East from an Eastern
perspective?