Friday, June 03, 2005

US criticizes Gulf allies on human trafficking

The United States criticized four Gulf Arab allies as among the world's worst offenders in permitting human trafficking on Friday in a rebuke Washington hopes will promote improved human rights in the Middle East.
The State Department downgraded Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the lowest level of compliance in a report that evaluates countries' efforts in fighting the trafficking of roughly 800,000 people forced into servitude or the sex trade every year.
Victims in the region were mostly from Asia and were generally forced to be domestic servants and laborers but also included women prostitutes and boy camel jockeys as young as three, according to the annual report.

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