Action against Human Trafficking and Slavery
Humanitarian Aide and Human Crisis News
A Mission to End the Exploitation of Migrant Workers in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Worldwide.
It came to my attention, after Jedi Skywalker ended up in a Saudi prison, that there have been human rights violations and an exploitation of migrant workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a country which is ruled by the Qur'an and Shari'a law, and still practises public beheadings, which I find macabre in these more enlightened times.
I am not too knowledgeable about the Qur'an or Shari'a Law, however, the Kingdom's highest muslim religious authority, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh, has already acknowledged that migrants suffer exploitation and oppression.
His comments, which were published in 2002, included the observation that "Islam does not permit oppressing workers, regardless of religion….As we ask them to perform their duty, we must fulfill our duty and comply with
the terms of the contract." The Grand Mufti criticized intimidation of migrant workers, and said that it was "illegal and a form of dishonesty" to withhold their salaries or delay payment of wages under threat of deportation. He counseled that Islam prohibits "blackmailing and threatening [foreign] laborers with deportation if they refuse the employers' terms which breach the contract."The following news page seems to indicate that progress is being made to improve human rights and conditions for migrant workers after some International pressure, but it may be a while before the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can truly be called a safe place to work.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/10/saudi-arabia-shura-council-passes-domestic-worker-protections
Jedi Skywalker's case was distressing enough to read about and feel, but when I delved deeper I found the following 130 page long paper by the Human Rights Watch, which details harrowing cases of human suffering and exploitation of migrant workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and though most of the people involved come from Asia and the Philipines, some people from the UK have also suffered greatly (be warned it's not nice reading).
My own suggestion for solving future problems in this country, and others, in regards to migrant workers would be for the United Nations, or International Labour Organization (ILO), to set up an International Migrant Labour Court, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's permission, that should allow fair trial and legal representation for all migrant workers in their chosen language. If this is not possible then I would suggest an amendment to ILO existing conventions C97 and C143, which deal with migrant workers, to allow fair trial and treatment.
Though the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plans to cut the number of foreign workers by 50 % over the next decade, there will still be need for proper representation of their migrant workforce (anything upto several million people (non citizens) are working in the Gulf States at this time).
Another suggestion would be to educate people as to their rights when visiting or going to work abroad, especially to countries ruled by Shari'a Law, which can be almost alien to those of us used to living in more enlightened countries.
I've only been abroad a couple of times in my life, and each time I did as much background research about the country as possible. Knowledge can keep you safe and out of trouble.
May the Force be with You
Jedi Richard Strange
Copyright © 2007 Richard Strange unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved.
