A report being compiled on the estimated 40,000 domestic maids in Bahrain has already shown the there is a serious problem with abuse and human trafficking. The Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society is pressing the government to include domestic maids in labour rights legislation, a protection which the maids, who are largely from India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia are denied at present.
Faisal Fulad international relations director for BHRW said;
“Abuse happens all the time here and the BHRWS feels that the Bahrain government, particularly the Labour Ministry, needs to focus on several issues, the most important of which is that maids must be included in the labour law.
“It is also very important to have a law in Bahrain that puts a stop to human trafficking.
“Recruitment agencies must also be monitored by the Labour Ministry.”
Whilst the BHRWS acknowledged that the government of Bahrain was doing a great deal against human trafficking, it feared that domestic maids were not covered by law and were being trafficked and were often promised jobs as nurses or teachers and then put into abusive domestic service situations.To read more on this and related subjects, please visit Gulf Daily News, by clicking here.

A draft law in Bulgaria is aiming to tackle the problem of women selling their new born babies to traffickers. The offence could now receive a sentence of between 5 and 10 years. Traffickers in Bulgaria have been selling babies, mainly from the Roma community, to childless couples in other countries. They can earn up to $US 25,000 per child. Over the past 3 years, the Bulgarian authorities have charged 33 people for allegedly coercing women to sell their babies. The fine for trafficking pregnant women could be around $US 6,500, which is a significant amount in Bulgaria, but if balanced against the amount traffickers could earn from selling children, it may not be much of a deterrent. To read more about the law, visit the Sofia Echo by clicking here. To read background on Bulgarian trafficking of babies, visit the Belfast Telegrpah by clicking here.

Two women have been arrested in Azerbaijan on suspicion of trafficking women to Dubai and Ankara. It is likely that these women would be sexually exploited when they reached their destination. Elnara Sattarzade from Baku City and Liliya Aliyeva from Mushvuigabad were detained by the Head Department for Fight with Criminality and criminal proceedings will be started.
The government of Azerbaijan is making progress in the fight against human trafficking, with a law against human trafficking passed in 2005, two hotlines and building work on a shelter for victims. It remains, however, a source country for women, children and men being trafficked to Turkey and to Gulf States such as the UAE. More work also needs to be done in facilitating the safe return, care and rehabilitation of the victims of human trafficking, including the alleged victims of the two women arrested in this case. For more information on this and related issues, please visit Trend news agency by clicking here.

The Vietnamese government has acted against the growing number of “forged marriages” which are being used as means to traffic women into sexual exploitation. Thousands of Vietnamese women are married to foreign men, for example in Taiwan, but when they arrive in the country they are forced into prostitution. The Vietnamese government will now require that international marriages be refused if any sign of illegal brokerage is detected during the application process. Now within 20 days of the application, person to person interviews must be conducted to check if the marriage is freely entered into and how much the supposed marriage candidates are able to communicate with each other. With more than 70,000 Vietnamese women marrying Taiwanese men alone since 1995, regulation of the process is an important step forward to stop traffickers. For more on this and related subjects, go to Thanh Nien News by clicking here

Three women have been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking at the Burma/China border. The women, who were in the company of other women traders, were arrested at the border gate at Muse, heading into China. The three women arrested for trafficking were Ma Cho Cho Htwe, Ma Argar, and Ma Khin Lay. Ma Cho Cho Htwe was identified as the leader of the group; she comes from Hlaing Township in Rangoon.
Burma continues to be a source country from which women, children and men are trafficked to Thailand, China, Bangladesh, Taiwan, India, Malaysia, Korea, Macau, and Japan for forced labour, begging and sexual exploitation. There are documented cases of children being in forced prostitution on the Burmese border with China. The military Junta which rules Burma has a policy of discrimination against minority groups such as the Shan, Karen and Mon peoples. This has lead to people taking up unsafe migration options offered by traffickers. The Burmese government policy of using forced labour itself has lead to traffickers thriving in the country. Although Burma has passed an anti-trafficking law, unless these underlying state sponsored causes are removed, the large scale trafficking of people out of, within and to a lesser extent into Burma will continue. For more on this and related subjects, please go to www.narinjara.com