Gulf region's newest pipeline: human trafficking

Recruiting scams are all too common. Trafficking victims say nationals from their home countries, as well as embassy officials and local citizens, often conspire to "recruit" hundreds of laborers, in exchange for a fee. Too often, such recruits find themselves homeless, jobless, and seeking sanctuary in their embassies or being arrested and deported.

Marie, another young Filipina interviewed for this story, can barely hold back the tears as she tells her story. "I dreamed I wanted to go abroad to support my family ... and when I came to Kuwait I thought my dream came true but when I reached my employer they were at first nice but then they kicked me and hit me," she says.

Like Judy, Marie eventually ran away. "I had a chance to escape and I went to the police station and an officer took me to the hospital." With the help of Philippine counselors, she filed a case against her sponsor for mistreatment and a court awarded her 500 Kuwait dinars ($1,712). But she has yet to receive the money.

In neighboring Saudi Arabia, a nongovernmental human rights watchdog, the National Human Rights Association, says that it has received about 2,000 complaints of abuse since it was established last year.

The State Department, in its annual trafficking report, says, "Saudi Arabia is a destination for men and women from South and East Asia and East Africa trafficked for the purpose of labor exploitation, and for children from Yemen, Afghanistan, and Africa trafficking for forced begging."

A spokesman for the Saudi Foreign Minister denounced the US report. "We are surprised by the contents of the report, and we disagree with most of what has been mentioned," Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Kabeer told Reuters. "The rules and regulations of Saudi Arabia prohibit exploitation and trafficking of people. Our religion also does not accept this," he said.

In the trafficking report, the US outlines specifically what measures it expects countries identified as the worst offenders to undertake in order to improve the situation. Speaking via videoconferencing at the US Embassy in Kuwait on June 22, James Miller, senior adviser to the secretary of State and director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, called on the government to combat its problems with "modern day slavery" by raising public awareness, improving labor laws to protect victims, and prosecuting offenders.

As most locals will acknowledge, the lifestyle of Gulfies (nationals from any of the Arab Gulf states) is built on a foundation of foreign labor. Most citizens' households - including high-ranking government officials, human rights advocates, as well as labor activists - have at least one and often several servants including a driver, cook, and maid.

Some young women who are brought here to be trapped into domestic servitude and often abused see no way out of their situation other than suicide. Instances of young Asian maids killing themselves by hanging or jumping off high buildings are a regular occurrence.

But for those able to escape, like 18-year-old Sittie Leng, there is hope they'll eventually return home.

Ms. Leng flips her long hair across her shoulders. "Household chores are not meant for me," she says.

After signing a contract in Mindanao and arriving in Kuwait, she switched employers three times in four months. In the last house, she was made a babysitter and that suited her better. But after one month, she grew worried when she saw her employers beating the three maids.

"Shouting, hitting, beating, kicking, using the wood to hit. I was scared that maybe they would hit me next. The maids had black marks all over their bodies. Our employer is like a devil and that house is like a hell - a hell house."

The four of them eventually fled together. Now Leng thinks only of going home. "I want to study nursing," she says.

When asked what she'll tell other Filipinas who think of coming to the Gulf to work, she laughs and shakes her head: "Beware," she says.

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