Slavery Alive And Well In Saudi Arabia
July 15: Many of the millions of foreign labourers in Saudi Arabia suffer from extreme exploitation and work under conditions that resemble slavery, an international human rights watchdog said on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia said that the report exaggerated the experiences of a few of the more than six million foreigners working in the kingdom, and noted that millions of families around the world were dependent on remittances from such workers.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch, in its first comprehensive report on foreign labourers in the oil-rich kingdom, slammed Saudi authorities, the legal system and private employers for a range of abuses that sometimes led to death.
The hard-hitting report called on de facto Saudi ruler Crown Prince Abdullah to set up an independent commission to investigate the abuses and publicise its findings.
“Migrant workers in the purportedly modern society that the kingdom has become continue to suffer extreme forms of labour exploitation that sometimes rise to slavery-like conditions,” it said.
“This report is an indictment of unscrupulous private employers and sponsors as well as Saudi authorities, including Interior Ministry interrogators and sharia court judges, who operate without respect for the rule of law and the inherent dignity of all men and women,” it added.
Around six million foreigners, mostly from the Indian subcontinent, sweep the streets, build homes or run offices in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter.
Lured by promises of hefty pay, many workers often ended up at the mercy of de facto employers imposing 12-hour work days or more, the report said.
SAUDI SAYS REPORT EXAGGERATES
The Saudi embassy in Washington said the kingdom had effective labour laws to protect all workers, including foreigners, and there was legal recourse for victims of abuse.
“We disagree with the report by Human Rights Watch and do not believe it is a fair or accurate reflection of Saudi Arabia and grossly exaggerates the few instances which in no way reflect the positive experiences of the millions of foreign workers in the Kingdom,” the embassy said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch said despite its two-week visit to Saudi Arabia in early last year, the kingdom remained closed to foreign investigators, forcing it to interview workers mainly from Bangladesh, India and the Philippines at home.
The report noted that the kingdom’s highest religious authority, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, had already spoken out against the abuses in remarks published in a Saudi newspaper in 2002, asserting that Islam does not permit abuse of workers regardless of their religion.
It acknowledged that many foreigners reported no complaints about their experience in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi embassy said an independent human rights commission had been established. “The kingdom takes the issue of human rights very seriously and we continue to make progress in this regard,” it said.
The report said mistreatment of women was among the most disturbing findings. “Some women workers that we interviewed were still traumatized from rape and sexual abuse at the hands of Saudi male employers,” the report said.
Human Rights Watch also slammed interrogation methods in Saudi prisons and the country’s legal system, saying confessions were often obtained through torture and workers complained of being forced to sign confessions they could not read under the threat of more torture.
None of the workers interviewed had had access to legal assistance before their trials or to their embassies, and no lawyers accompanied them during trials, even in cases that resulted in the death penalty, the report said.
