UN rights experts call on Saudi Arabia and Viet Nam to crack down on trafficking News
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UN rights experts call on Saudi Arabia and Viet Nam to crack down on trafficking

United Nations human rights experts Thursday called on both Saudi Arabia and Viet Nam to “crack down” on human trafficking following reports of women and girls recruited in Viet Nam to serve as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

The experts noted that traffickers “target[] Vietnamese women and girls living in poverty” because of their vulnerability. Girls and women who sign on with labor recruiters have been sexually abused, beaten, and tortured by their employers once they arrived in Saudi Arabia. The victims were often denied food and medicine, not paid, or paid less than their contracts called for. The experts pointed to the “truly alarming allegations” that some companies recruited girls as domestic labor and forged their ages on documents to hide that they were recruiting children.

They urged the nations “to adopt effective measures and policies to prevent and combat trafficking in persons and to protect trafficked workers.” They called for effective accountability measures when it comes to labor migration and stated explicitly that Saudi Arabia “should bring migrant domestic workers under its labour law protections.” The statement by the experts noted that from the beginning of September to the end of October, nearly 205 Vietnamese women, alleged trafficking victims, had been repatriated to Viet Nam.

They called for both governments to investigate human rights abuses and the alleged involvement of public officials in human trafficking and called for the prosecution of violators. “We further remind Viet Nam and Saudi Arabia of their international legal obligations to cooperate in order to combat trafficking in persons,” the experts concluded.

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