United Nations Special Rapporteurs expressed their fear over the information they received regarding victims of human trafficking of Vietnamese women and girls.
In a letter addressed to the Saudi government, in October 2021, the Special Rapporteur on human trafficking, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel treatment, indicated information relating to 33 Victim of "human trafficking".
The letter indicated that a number of Vietnamese women and girls were recruited by various labor recruitment agencies in Vietnam to work as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, where they found themselves in exploitative situations. . According to the information, these agencies have recruited a number of minors and forged their official documents.
The letter indicated that some of the victims resorted to official service centers in Saudi Arabia, including the "Sakan" center in Riyadh. However, the center confiscated their documents and identities, and prevented them from leaving it unless accompanied by the Saudi authorities or officials of their country's diplomatic mission.
Some of the victims reportedly requested assistance from companies that had recruited them to work in Saudi Arabia to help them return to Vietnam. However, it was mostly reported that the companies, through their representatives in Riyadh, did not provide any assistance to the victims. In some cases, victims they contacted were required by companies to work hard and not complain, and were threatened with a heavy fine for breaching their employment contracts.
Furthermore, the information provided to the rapporteurs indicates the existence of a trafficking ring, including Vietnamese nationals, in Saudi Arabia that deals with Vietnamese migrant workers. Some of the women in a social services housing center were reportedly contacted by a Vietnamese citizen, who removed them from the center without their consent and trafficked them to new employers.
The letter indicated that between September and October 2021, 39 women allegedly victims of trafficking were returned to Vietnam. The letter presented the stories of a number of victims, who were subjected to ill-treatment and torture, including one of the victims losing sight in one of her eyes. The letter also indicated that one of the victims died in July 2021, in mysterious circumstances, without knowing the details or investigating what she was exposed to.
The Special Rapporteurs expressed their deep concern about these violations, in particular the assurances they received from Vietnam about the subjection of women and girls to forced labor, denial of food and denial of treatment. The letter emphasized that these practices may amount to acts of torture. The rapporteurs made it clear that Saudi Arabia should take serious steps, especially as it is a party to the 1997 Convention against Torture.
The letter also considered that these practices violate international laws related to the elimination of all forms of slavery, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization Convention on Forced Labor ratified by Saudi Arabia in 1987. The letter also confirmed that these practices violate the Protocol to Prevent and Punish Human Trafficking, especially women and children, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The Special Rapporteurs expressed concern about the lack of adequate mechanisms to identify and refer to appropriate social services for victims of trafficking, and noted that the arrest, detention and deportation of trafficking victims had been reported for acts committed as a result.
The letter called on Saudi Arabia to take urgent steps to protect victims, stop violations, and carry out the necessary investigations to ensure that all those responsible for these crimes are held accountable.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights believes that the issues presented by the letter of the special rapporteurs confirm the failure of the Saudi official agencies to protect victims, and in some cases the measures taken by these agencies, including the detention of legal documents and the prevention of leaving shelters, are part of the violations.
The organization considers that despite the official promotion of human rights reforms, official Saudi laws still allow discrimination against women, especially foreign workers, and still permit violations, including trafficking.