187
5.2 KSA Policies and Primary Data
The link between human trafficking issues and Saudi Arabia is crucial to understanding this problem and hopefully getting nearer to a solution. One piece of recent KSA legislation mentioned earlier is the Anti-Trafficking Law. When comparing the goals of the Palermo Protocol and the SAATL, it can be easily seen that it shares some of the Protocol’s goals.
The KSA Human Rights Authority has stated that the government is looking at joining some of the international agreements relevant to human trafficking.
They also explained that the government of Saudi Arabia has joined and ratified some of the main international treaties related to human trafficking.
The Basic Law in Saudi Arabia should explain international convention procedures; however, since it was issued in 1992, there have been no amendments to the Law. Additionally, the Saudi Arabian Labour Law has been amended recently, yet the amendments did not meet all expectations in terms of the obligations towards prevention.
The data that have been collected shows that the KSA government has not implemented fully any of the international conventions that they have joined.
This shows that the KSA government has not yet reached the point of enforcing the Anti-Trafficking Law mechanisms as a starting point.
They have not reached the point where the enforcement authorities can understand the critical concepts of the phenomenon of human trafficking, rather than establishing the new Anti-Trafficking Law between the KSA departments, and they have not reached the point where they have allocated a special and dedicated national task force that concentrates on the prevention, punishment and protection of the victims of human trafficking.
The government can continue these efforts along with the development of migration in the country and the international focus on trafficking. It has been
188
asserted previously that the Anti-Trafficking Laws are, in fact, made to combat and prevent trafficking.
Looking at the issue of the obligation of preventing human trafficking, this cannot stem only through the introduction of Anti-Trafficking Laws or publishing department efforts in combating human trafficking as in the case of KSA.
Similar to the previous chapter, the primary data on this chapter is divided on to two main parts that encounter the period after introducing the law in KSA or after joining any international norm as in the policies that needed to implement that law. These data should elaborate on the fact of once the KSA government have established the law and implemented them, the serious of policies and measures that they should enact.
The first part of the data, showed undisputable fact, which is the lack of the internal collaboration between the KSA government after the laws are being issued such as the lack of finding a unified definition to the human trafficking between the KSA departments. Even if the KSA government are intended to join an international treaty, the data has revelled in unquestionably facts that they cooperation is not on the agenda.
The specific of this thesis is the obligation of prevention of trafficking of the domestic workers, hence, in the area of the risk and vulnerability of the domestic workers, especially after the Palermo Protocol and the KSA domestic workers bylaw, the data in the chapter have elaborated on the fact that the focus of the KSA government was on the elimination of aspects of the abuse that the domestic workers are facing.
On the other hand, the data have not revelled any process to the repercussion of trafficking of domestic workers, and more precisely the process to identify the victims of trafficking. The concerned departments in this matter have shown the definite fact, which are the KSA departments does know about the
189
risks of domestic workers and does not know the process of identifying the victims of trafficking.
On the issue of official training and public awareness, this data has show some facts such as that the KSA government are lacking the needed training for their officials in all aspects of trafficking starting from the point of knowing what is the human trafficking, its definition, its causes and how to know the victims of human trafficking. The public awareness is not far from the above statement as the data have shown the undeniable fact, which is the shortness in producing materials to aware people from the trafficking.
The next section will discuss the core of this research, which is the prevention, and in this chapter the meaning of prevention will guide to the prevention policies and measures that have being taken by the KSA government. The data on this matter has revelled without doubts the lack of the prevention measures and policies within the KSA government as form the start the KSA government did not include the prevention in their anti-trafficking law, and subsequently all measures are not on ground.
In the area of the victims of trafficking the fact is, while the KSA government have established the permanent committee to combat the human trafficking, yet the data have revelled that they have not shown an interest in the term of potential victims and therefore, all the data showed that all the KSA department lacks the proper term definition along with the actual policy to protect the potential victims through the initiation of prevention measures.
The second main part is case study of this chapter, which is the first KSA national report on combating the human trafficking. This report was made by the concern department that have the concern on issues of trafficking which is the KSA national committee to combat the human trafficking.
The data on this case study is divided into four main areas where the first one will discuss the policy of this committee in terms of their perspective on the
190
issue of the national legislations and the prevention of trafficking. In terms of this area the report detail extensively the KSA government role on preventing the human trafficking through their laws.
This area have shown without doubts the fact that the KSA government might have laws to combat the human trafficking, yet the lack the mechanism to implement those laws. That mechanism would be the core of this chapter, which is the policy that the KSA government should enact after the math of establishing laws.
The second area on this report discusses the policy of the KSA government in, what have been established in the first part, the national mechanism to combat the human trafficking. The data on this part will show the role of the KSA department collaboratively in combating the human trafficking, such as the role of Department of Labour with the migrant workers. Not only that, the data will explore different steps that have been taken by the KSA government, which are not related to issues of human trafficking.
The third area on this report discusses the policy of the KSA government on the issue of officials training and public awareness. The data on this area will show the role of the ministerial council on combating the human trafficking and their encouragement including the symposiums that have been prepared in 2010.
Unquestionably, the data have shown clearly that the KSA government did not raise the awareness on human trafficking or its causes and especially on matters that concern the domestic workers. On the issues of the official training, the data will revel that while the KSA government has prepared training sessions, however, the data have revelled the lack of appropriate preparation for those training sessions in terms of the beneficiaries of those sessions.
191
Finally, the last area will discuss the issue of the policy of the KSA government cooperation internationally, as per the Palermo Protocol, on human trafficking. In this area, the data will explains that as part of the KSA cooperation is what seems to be the participation from some of the KSA officials in the international forums.
While that could not be seen understandable as in the relevancy to the international cooperation to prevent the human trafficking, the data extends further to explains the lack of cooperation between the KSA government and the international agency such as the ILO, IOM and the UNODC.