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It is essential that the KSA government deal with the increase in the number of domestic workers in the country by implementing the concept of human rights being for everyone, as stated in the SABL.¹⁹⁵ In addition, the increase in the number of the domestic workers in KSA means that this government must, at the same time, intensify their efforts in several related areas, such as public awareness, training of government officials and revising current laws and policies.

3.2.6 The KSA Government and Domestic Workers

For the purposes of this research, it is essential to understand the means of trafficking of domestic workers in KSA. Essentially, there is a need to further describe and highlight the issue of abuse and exploitation of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. As explained earlier, trafficking consists of two main elements, movement and exploitation.¹⁹⁶ However, the data that were collected in KSA does not reveal anything in regards to this area, although it was explained that the KSA government have not met the Palermo Protocol

195 Ministries Council, The Basic Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Multimedia House Press 1992) 64;

the Basic Law was issued on Royal Decree No. A/90: 27/08/1412 (1992) and contains 88 Articles

196 T. Obokata, ‘EU Council Framework Decision on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings: A Critical Approach’ (see text to n 281) 924

means and the purposes of trafficking. It is the belief of this thesis that they have not considered the Palermo Protocol obligations in regards to prevention at the moment; this could be because the five departments questioned have not yet defined the means of human trafficking as a starting point, even though it has to be said that the KSA government included a definition to the means of human trafficking in the Anti-Trafficking Law.¹⁹⁸

This contradiction leads to the strong indication, that the KSA departments questioned in this research have no knowledge or studies about human trafficking and doubtable knows their obligations under the Palermo Protocol.

197 It has been explained earlier that the Saudi Arabian government issued an Anti-Trafficking Law and established a permanent committee to combat human trafficking. Surprisingly, the five KSA departments questioned were not able to provide an answer on the means of human trafficking in Saudi Arabia. All forms of human trafficking have to have a means, as defined in the United Nations Protocol. The Saudi Arabian departments focused on the idea of legislation and no other sections of the Protocol, which shows that the intent to combat human trafficking is there, but without the knowledge of where to start or what to do.

Initially the Saudi Arabian government have not complied with all of the protection, prevention and punishment elements of the Palermo Protocol. This can be seen in their anti-trafficking law were it focuses on only punishment. Yet, this thesis has not looked into the Saudi Arabian violations of the international laws. This thesis has focused on answering the question of “To what extent do Saudi Arabian laws and government policies fulfil the obligations to prevent the trafficking of domestic workers?”. Thus, it is believed that this would be considered as new area of research that does not fall under the main topic of this thesis.

198 Article 1(a) of the Saudi Arabian Anti-Trafficking Law, issued 2009, states: ‘Human trafficking is prohibited in all of its kinds including the means of threats or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve consent of a person to have control over another person for the purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs or medical experiments.’ ILO, ‘Human Trafficking and Forced Labour Exploitation’

(ILO, Geneva 2005) 11. An example from another country is the Brazilian government’s adoption of new sanctions for forced labour and trafficking exploitation crimes in their Act No. 9777. The Brazilian Department of Labour also took action to raise the number of prosecutions and reinstate the rights of forced labourers and human trafficking victims

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This adoption of measures to prevent the lives of domestic workers and the elimination of human trafficking means is what is missing from the KSA departments. They need to adopt, amend and en-act the policies regarding human trafficking, and especially in regards to the prevention.

A further point is that every department needs to have a specialist section within it, with people who are knowledgeable on the subject of human trafficking. It is not acceptable to assign people who do not have a basic understanding of human trafficking and ask them to draft or investigate trafficking crimes.

The relevant KSA committee shows in Section 10 Article 5 of the procedures to combat human trafficking that staff shall ’prepare studies and collect information continually to combat human trafficking.’¹⁹⁹ They also state that it is their duty to continue focusing on the nature of human trafficking in KSA in order to develop comprehensive knowledge on the evolution of human trafficking in KSA.

This shows that some of the KSA departments have already established the needed definition of the means of human trafficking. Yet, as it is said in Arab countries, you cannot clap with one hand. This means that KSA departments need to act collectively and in cooperation with each other to reach the maximum effort to combat human trafficking.

Specifically, for example, Department labour should have at least the knowledge to define the means of human trafficking. They cannot participate in committees allocated by the SAMC to combat human trafficking and at the same time not know what the means of human trafficking are.

In regards to the KSA policies under the Palermo Protocol obligations to prevent the trafficking of domestic workers, requires the needs to examine the policies prepared to face the causes of domestic workers trafficking. The

199 The KSA Human Rights Authority, as evidenced from the data collection

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HRW has listed all possible abuses that domestic workers, around the world, including in KSA, might face from the kind of exploitations and abuses that happen behind closed doors. This list contain some exploitations such as wage exploitation, excessive work hours, no rest days, no health care, termination of contract, inadequate living conditions, sexual abuse, forced labour, food deprivation and human trafficking.²⁰⁰

It is more than certain that most of the conditions listed above do not need to have both main elements of trafficking, which are movement and exploitation.²⁰¹ Since the movement part is not included in the abuse and exploitation that domestic workers are facing in KSA, it is most definitely to be considered as abuse of the domestic workers and not trafficking.

Yet, as shown previously, those causes and abuses are considered as the easy road to trafficking of domestic workers in KSA, and the policies can be in line with the Palermo Protocol obligations to prevent the trafficking. This is not a case of giving an excuse for this abuse, but showing it needs a different approach to end such abuses and exploitation then domestic workers trafficking.

The issue of the cooperation between KSA government departments is crucial, especially when the number of domestic workers is increasing. In order to enact current laws and policies, full cooperation is needed at this stage. There is no purpose to issuing laws and policies without having them implemented into current domestic law unless it is for propaganda purposes.

The laws and policies prepared by a government should be enacted, enforced and implemented appropriately into the laws in KSA in order to get the full

200 Human Rights Watch, ‘Domestic Work for Domestic Workers: The Case for Global Labour Standards’

[2005] Human Rights Watch 4-12

201 Human Rights Watch, ‘Saudi Arabia: Bad Dreams, Exploitations and Abuses of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia’ (see text to n 32); Human Rights Watch, ‘Swept Under the Rug: Abuses against Domestic Workers around the World’ (see text to n 32)

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benefits from them as those laws and polices without implementation can be seen as ink on paper only. The benefits of implementing the laws and the policies can be seen as protecting the victims of human trafficking, punishing the traffickers and most importantly preventing the trafficking of domestic workers from occurring.

Another point that needs to be addressed in this issue, is that the KSA government needs to learn from the past experiences of countries with the same or similar issue. Such lessons are crucial at this stage as they could then start from where other countries have ended.

An example could be seen from the experience of the United States and its widely known TVPA law. This law has been amended three times since it was enacted for the purpose of decreasing the number of trafficking victims and defeating the traffickers’ methods and it is clearly shows that the work of improving the laws would most defiantly improve the human rights and preventing human trafficking does not stop with issuing laws or policies.²⁰² A country’s strategies should start from the point of issuing laws and go through the point of studying the current performance of their laws to the end of improving it toward the best standards. This strategy main objective should end by reaching a balanced legal system that protects the victims of trafficking, prevents future trafficking and punishes traffickers.