Modern Day Slavery in North Africa and The Middle East (MENA)

As violent conflict escalates and political, economic, social and security spillovers destabilize many countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the profile of victims vulnerable to modern slavery has shifted. Though MENA continues to act as a destination for men and women from Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa who are attracted to the region with promises of well-paying jobs, increasingly Middle Easterners themselves faced exploitation and slavery in 2016. Victims were identified as forced recruits in state and non-state armed groups, as victims of forced marriage and victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Foreign and local citizens were subject to forced labour and debt bondage in service sectors such as domestic work, cleaning, and as drivers and restaurant workers, as well as in construction, agriculture and mechanics. Children in Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Yemen were recruited, trained and deployed in violent conflict. There were increasingly grave reports of children being used as suicide bombers, informants, bomb makers and human shields. There are reports of families selling disabled children to Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and online videos showing very young children carrying out assassinations through beheading and shooting. UNICEF estimates a fivefold increase in the recruitment of children in Yemen's civil war, meaning that a third of combatants are children.

There are verified reports of women and children being captured, sold into slavery and held in barbarous conditions by IS. In 2014, IS captured 3,000 women and children, mostly from the

Kurdish-speaking Yazidi minority group—the largest single capture of women this century. IS propaganda claimed that the captured Yazidi women and girls were 'spoils of war' to be divided among fighters. Publications released by IS provide an extreme interpretation of Shari'a describing the legality and illegalities of dealing with slaves—"it is permissible to buy, sell, or give as a gift female captives and slaves, for they are merely property, which can be disposed of..." This alarming resurgence of slavery is evident in Raqqa, the self-proclaimed IS capital, and surrounding IS-occupied territory where women can be bought and sold at the market. There are reports of IS offering to sell women back to their families for as much as US$40,000.

Forced marriage of children and women continues to be an issue. The phenomenon of 'temporary' or 'tourist' marriages whereby men, often from the Gulf States, travel abroad and temporarily take a wife for the duration of their vacation has been identified in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco and India. In some cases, child brides are forcibly married by their parents for economic gain. Children as young as 11 have been sold into temporary marriages in Egypt. These temporary religious marriages bind the girl to her husband for an agreed time frame—often days or weeks at a time, sometimes only hours—but do not afford the child or woman any legal rights. This leaves them vulnerable to domestic servitude and prostitution and, in many cases, denies citizenship to any subsequent offspring. In Morocco, the 2014 census revealed more than 100,000 child brides, some of whom may have been married without free and informed consent. Refugee children from Syria and Iraq have been forcibly married by desperate parents trying to ensure their economic security and protect them from the threat of sexual violence. Migrant workers from Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa continue to flock to MENA for work.

In 2015 there were reports that Thai nationals were exploited on Israeli farms; Filipina, Nepali, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, Ugandan, Kenyan, Ethiopian and Mauritanian women were abused in private homes; and Indian, Nepali, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men were exploited in the construction of resorts, museums, stadiums, and infrastructure in UAE and Qatar. Migrant workers are subject to practices that may amount to forced labor including extortionate recruitment fees, illegal confiscation of identity documents, withholding and non-payment of salaries, hazardous working conditions, unhygienic living conditions, unlawful overtime performed under the threat of deportation, and physical and sexual abuse.

Though not representative of all cases, the data from the report index points to worryingly widespread abuse and the ineffectiveness of law enforcement to quash these illegal but culturally-accepted practices. Before the violence escalated, migrant workers in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen were already vulnerable to forced labor and debt bondage commensurate with regional trends. However, the current crisis has magnified these issues and introduced new risks and threats. In mid-2014, hundreds of South Asian migrant workers in Iraq were caught in the crossfire between the Iraqi military and IS. Those wanting to leave the country faced a difficult situation as employers retained worker passports. Reports of IS holding migrant workers in situations of debt bondage in Iraq have emerged since their rise to prominence in 2014, as well as their use for forced labor, sexual exploitation and as human shields in conflict. Though many labor-sending countries repatriated workers from Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen, concerning reports of South Asian workers accepting jobs in the Gulf but then being deceptively sent to countries in conflict by brokers continue to emerge in 2016. Refugees fleeing conflict, including children, were subject to forced labor in the agricultural sectors of neighboring countries, particularly Lebanon, while Egyptian men continue to be exploited on Jordanian farms.

Slavery Watch Index Report


If you know of anyone in any kind of physical slavery contact: AURegion6@Gmail.com