By Nour Abuzant
About 80% of the countries that have enacted laws to crack down on trafficking in humans have not brought a single case related to this issue to trial, an expert on the field told Gulf Times yesterday.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Doha conference on human trafficking, Dr Mohamed Mattar of John Hopkins University explained that “trafficking in humans” comes in different forms, including mistreatment of domestic workers, sex tourism, employment of children, trade in organs, using persons in armed conflicts and medical tests and pornography.
He also mentioned the sponsorship system in practice in certain parts of the world, praising the abolishing of the system in Bahrain.
Mattar said that Saudi Arabia is considering relaxing some of the regulations.
“Some progress has been made and there were encouraging steps but in fact, a lot more has to be done,” he said, adding: “Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi has said clearly that the sponsorship system was against the Islamic law.”
He remarked that in the past decade, 76 countries enacted legislation making human trafficking a crime, with 60 of those countries taking measures to prevent the crime itself.
Mattar said that there were legislative movements to fight human trafficking in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, adding that “draft laws are being studied in Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon and Qatar.”
He lamented that the media is failing to promote awareness about human trafficking, saying that the Arab satellite channels had to do more in this regard.
On the other hand, Mattar praised key academic institutions in the Arab world for including the issue as a mandatory subject of study.
Matter urged Arab governments to “consult” non-governmental organisations and to allow them to work without unnecessary restrictions, adding that “Qatar has contributed remarkably to combatting trafficking in humans compared to most other countries of the region”.
He said other countries should model their efforts after Qatar when initiating reforms to combating trafficking. |
