GCC condemns US report on trafficking

Riyadh: In a rare public display of anger, all six Gulf states have chastised their ally the United States over a State Department report which accused the majority of Gulf countries of not doing enough to combat human trafficking.

The foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states also called on the State Department to "revise its unfriendly policy towards GCC countries," according to a statement issued after their meeting in Riyadh late on Monday.

In a report last week, the State Department kept Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia on a blacklist of countries it claims "traffic in people," while it applauded progress made by the UAE and Bahrain.

It said the four states admit people from Asian and African countries to work as domestic servants or low-skilled labourers. Many subsequently "face conditions of involuntary servitude" while some are "forced into prostitution."

The GCC "deeply regrets the wrong information on the Gulf states contained in a US State Department report for 2008 on human trafficking," the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted the six ministers as saying in the statement. "[The report] aims to exert unjustified pressure for political ends," the statement added.

In a press conference last week, Mark Lagon, US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice's senior adviser on human trafficking said: "For the last four years, the weak performance of several nations in the Gulf has been the matter of great concern and disappointment." But he added that he was "happy to report that the UAE and Bahrain continued to make significant improvements, notably the UAE. It is a model in the region."

UN praise for UAE

A Bahraini official, however, said his country was not happy with the report.

"The new ranking is not fair to Bahrain's efforts because it does not cover the legal measures we have taken to boost the fight on trafficking," said Shaikh Abdul Aziz Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary for Coordination and Follow-Up.

The UAE was also praised by the UN last week. At a special session at the UN General Assembly on human trafficking, experts and diplomats acknowledged the UAE's "significant efforts" to combat trafficking.

- With additional inputs from WAM and agencies