Muscat: Oman is considering a proposal to introduce 'exit permits' for expatriate residents even as the police chief has identified three forms of human trafficking prevalent in the country.

Lieutenant General Malek Bin Sulaiman Al Maamari, Oman's Inspector General of Police and Customs, said that the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking would prepare a draft on combating various aspects of human trafficking and it would be completed within three months.

"Protecting the rights of foreign work force is part of the proposed draft," the police chief told media at the end of the first meeting of the Committee at the Royal Oman Police headquarters.

"The Manpower Ministry has done a lot to guarantee the rights of workers but there are some small details that need to be looked into, including [the] right to keep [one's] passport," he said.

"[A] passport is a private document and every employee has the right to keep the same with him or her," he said but added that the employers also needed some form of guarantee that employees would not leave dubiously.

Therefore, the committee discussed a proposal where every expatriate would be required to obtain a clearance letter from the employer or sponsor before leaving the country.

"It is like 'exit pass' that is in practice in some of the other GCC countries," he told Gulf News.

In Saudi Arabia and Qatar, foreign workers have to obtain exit permit to leave the country.

The police chief stressed that the committee only discussed the proposal on clearance letters for expatriate leaving Oman.

"If accepted every expatriate will have to seek [an] exit permit even before going on leave," Al Maamari said.

Oman is a home to about 750,000 foreign workers, and the majority of them are currently required to hand over their passports to their employers.

However, the new move is set to allow them to keep their passports.

The chairman of the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking also admitted that prostitution, trade in human organs and child labour had afflicted Oman.

Authorities had so far uncovered only one case of human trafficking, relating to prostitution.

"We have arrested seven Omani nationals and four expatriates of other nationalities for forcing women into prostitution," he said.

He said that victims of the prostitution racket were sheltered at a centre run by the authorities and that they were well looked after.

He also said the women were even escorted when they went shopping or undertook leisure trips.

He also the victims would be sent back to their home country once legal proceedings were concluded and rulings delivered.

He said it was bitter to note that some countries demanding human rights observance by all nations had legalised prostitution as a profession and even ensure benefits accrued to prostitutes.

"It [prostitution] may be the oldest profession in human history but our religion does not tolerate this," the top Omani police officer reiterated.

Al Maamari said that the problem of illegal immigrants entering Oman along the Batina coast was a continuing development.

"We arrest almost 30 to 40 illegal immigrants every day along the coast and currently there are over 1,000 people from Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan languishing in our detention centres for illegally entering the country," he said.

He admitted that the nation was faced with a complex challenge in the form of human traffickers from Pakistan as well as Iran.