Stop Trafficking of Humans to the United Arab Emir...

Author: Ara Manoogian

Started: December 19, 2006, 7:09:16 am

Target: United States President George W. Bush, U.S. Department of State Secretary, The United Arab Emirates Government, all countries of origin of trafficking victims found in the UAE

Category: Civil & Human Rights

Supporters:

Goal:

1,000,000

Goal Progress:

Status

Active

We the undersigned demand that a stop be put to the trafficking of persons to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which presently has tens of thousands of victims living in slave-like conditions.

According to the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), the UAE is a destination country for men, women, and children who are trafficked from South and East Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East for involuntary servitude and for sexual exploitation. This fact is further documented in a series of news articles published by the Investigative Journalists of Armenia (see: http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/trafficking.html) and in a documentary titled “Desert Nights” (see: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6150836860448657774&q=desert+nights&hl=en)

According to the U.S. Department of State's fifth annual TIP Report dated June 2, 2005 (see: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/), the UAE was among the 14 worst offending countries, placing them on the Tier 3 list, resulting in possible sanctions against them from the United States (see: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46616.htm#uae).

Though conditions have worsened since the 2005 report was published, President George W. Bush, contrary to the objections of the Department of State, waived sanctions for the UAE and a number of other countries who Bush categorized as strategic partners on the War on Terrorism, ignoring the rights of the trafficking victims found in the UAE (see: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/21/national/w184052D94.DTL or http://aramanoogian.blogspot.com/2005/10/us-president-not-interested-in.html)

According to the U.S. Department of State's sixth annual TIP Report dated June 5, 2006, the UAE has been placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. The report clearly documents that the UAE has failed to show increased efforts to combat trafficking over the past year, particularly in its efforts to address the large-scale trafficking of foreign girls and women for commercial sexual exploitation (see complete report at: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2006/). Since conditions have not improved based on the 2006 TIP Report and according to recent stories published by the Investigated Journalists of Armenia, which indicate that conditions are much worse than initially discovered in 2005, it is clear that the UAE should have been placed on the Tier 3 list and not the Tier 2 Watch List.

We the undersigned ask that the UAE be properly categorized, placed on the Tier 3 list and sanctions immediately be implemented.

We further ask that all those responsible for trafficking of persons to the UAE be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and the victims be liberated from their captors.