Rights group warns states against human trafficking

A stern warning was issued yesterday to the labour agencies and the customs officials in the GCC states by human rights activists against the possibility of orphaned children, particularly girls, from the tsunami-struck areas being smuggled into the region as housemaids.

"Labour agencies in the region must be 'extra vigilant' when hiring people from South East Asia, particularly Indonesia," member of the board of advisers of the Geneva-based Arab Centre for Migrant Workers, Nabeel Rajab, said.

"We are worried that many of the children might end-up here in the region as housemaids," he told Gulf News. "There are reports confirming that child-trafficking gangs had already moved into the areas hit by tsunamis to exploit the situation," he added.

Relief agencies estimate that more than 30,000 children in Indonesia alone had lost one or both parents in the disaster.

Rajab, who is also the president of the now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said prior to the December 26 disaster, there has been a good number of cases in Bahrain and other GCC states where young girls from Indonesia had been brought in with false documents regarding their age to work as housemaids. "We do not have any exact figures on the number of children that had been brought here to work as housemaids, but we know it is a large number and we expect these numbers to increase in the coming weeks and months," he said.

Rajab added that it would take a joint effort by the labour agencies, authorities, and human rights groups to prevent the situation from deteriorating and being exploited by the traffickers. "We will hold these agencies responsible and we will seek legal action against those who are involved in it." The GCC states are part of 192 nations that ratified the Rights of the Child Convention that outlaws child trafficking and child labour.

Rajab called on the Indonesian authorities to take active measures to prevent the smuggling of children and women. He also called on sea and air port authorities in the GCC states to intensify patrols and vigil.

A spokesman for the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports, and Residence Affairs in Bahrain said the Bahraini authorities had been keeping a strict watch even prior to the disaster.

"The passports and documents are checked before the visa is issued and upon arrival of the person, because we had a number of problems where documents had been falsified, particularly in cases of housemaids from Indonesia," he said.

The writer is an Arab journalist based in Manama