Expose the evils of human trafficking - The National Newspaper

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Last Updated: May 10. 2010 8:49PM UAE / May 10. 2010 4:49PM GMT

They were found huddled in rooms, terrified and beaten. Bruises the size of fists marred their bodies, and few said anything as the police discovered them, having been terrified into silence.

Robbed of their passports, the 13 trafficked Moroccan women found in Abu Dhabi last year were fated to a life of modern slavery.

Their ordeal came to a close only after one of the women managed to escape and alert the police. Her boldness led to the arrest and prosecution of the largest trafficking ring ever caught in the Emirates.

The number of human trafficking cases brought to the courts is on the rise. And as Dr Anwar Gargash, the chairman of the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking, emphasised: “In all countries where there are human trafficking cases, the number of cases that reach the court is a drop in the sea of the overall cases that are going on.”

This is sobering news for a country that is fast becoming one of the region’s largest transport hubs. The growing number of people travelling here for employment or transit means that the task of regulating illegal activities is also growing more complex.

Reforms are keeping pace with the rise in trafficking, however.

Infrastructure and legislation are nascent but growing. There are shelters in Dubai and Abu Dhabi; both have hotlines staffed by women 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Legislation that was introduced in 2006 to specifically address trafficking is being revised and updated to include better provisions for victims.

Under UAE legislation, 43 cases were tried in court last year. But the anecdotal evidence of women – and men – forced into jobs unwillingly suggests that many cases do not reach the courts.

And it should be remembered that abuse extends beyond sexual exploitation. Forced labour in any form, whether toiling without wages on a construction site or forced prostitution confined to a room, is abhorrent.

It demands the highest vigilance on the part of authorities if the country is to continue on the path of becoming a modern, progressive country. The opportunity for people to find a better life should not be betrayed by a false promise.

Expose the evils of human trafficking - The National Newspaper