Human Trafficking in [Yemen] [other countries]
Street Children in [Yemen] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Yemen] [other countries]
 

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

In the first ten years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2009

Republic of Yemen Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, reported average annual growth in the range of 3-4% from 2000 through 2007. Yemen's economic fortunes depend mostly on declining oil resources, but the country is trying to diversify its earnings. In 2006 Yemen began an economic reform program designed to bolster non-oil sectors of the economy and foreign investment. [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Yemen is a country of origin and, to a much lesser extent, transit and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Yemeni children, mostly boys, are trafficked across the northern border with Saudi Arabia or to the Yemeni cities of Aden and Sana’a for forced labor, primarily as beggars, but also for domestic servitude or work in small shops. Some of these children are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation in transit or once they arrive in Saudi Arabia. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report]

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Yemen. Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

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World Population Awareness - Children

GANGS SMUGGLING YEMENI CHILDREN TO SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi and Yemeni officials said gangs in Yemen are kidnapping children and sending them to Saudi Arabia as beggars. Some families "rent their children" to these gangs for want of money. Children are mostly sent to Makkah and Madinah.

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U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are trafficked out of the country to work as street beggars, domestic help, or as camel jockeys in oil rich Gulf States. There are some reports that children are involved in armed conflicts in the country.

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – Trafficking was a relatively new phenomenon in the country, and there were no reliable statistics available. During the year there were reports of foreign Arab women, particularly Iraqis, who were possibly trafficked to the country for the purpose of prostitution. They are located primarily in the southern port city of Aden and in Sana'a. As the problem of sex trafficking was new, authorities were unable to provide information on the scope and methods of sex trafficking, but they suspected that women were brought or trafficked to the country by organized syndicates. In 2004 the government took steps to address this problem by instituting a new visa requirement for Iraqi citizens traveling to the country.

According to a local human rights NGO, it was possible that citizen women were trafficked from their homes to other regions within the country for the purposes of prostitution, including those under the age of legal consent. The same NGO also believed that such prostitution may have been organized and speculated that low-level government and security officials operated or were complicit in sex trafficking within the country.

There were no official statistics available on the number of children trafficked out of the country. Press reports claimed that children mostly from northern governorates were trafficked out of the country to work as street beggars, vendors, or domestic help in Saudi Arabia at a rate of approximately 200 children per week. Children were trafficked by individuals, other children, and loosely organized syndicates who helped them cross the border by donkey, automobile, or foot.

Government investigations revealed that extreme poverty was the primary motivation behind child trafficking and that the victims' families were almost always complicit. The traffickers were almost always well known by, if not related to, the family; parents were either paid or promised money in exchange for allowing their children to be trafficked. Many cases were also later discovered to be instances of illegal immigration.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2005

[70] The Committee is deeply concerned at the information that many children are trafficked to Saudi Arabia, often with the support of their parents, and that quite a number of them are sent back and end up in the streets of larger cities.

State of children in Yemen deteriorates, Children’s Parliament

www.yobserver.com/culture-and-society/10015711.html

CHILD TRAFFICKING - The report addresses the important issue of child trafficking in Yemen, where children are exposed to many dangers and serious harm as they are sold to people in Saudi Arabia.  Poverty, the absence of basic services such as education and health, lack of awareness concerning the risks of child trafficking and family dissolution have been identified as the main reason for the spread of trafficking, the report says. The Children’s Parliament has called on the government to improve the situation of children in Yemen, to implement severe punishments for smugglers, and to conduct awareness campaigns concerning the dangers of this problem.

New study shames human traffickers

www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143968455

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

Countries in the Middle East have been named as the worst culprits of human trafficking.

A new report by an international trade unions’ umbrella organisation says Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen are notorious destinations for women trafficked from Kenya.

Its report, ‘Trafficking in Persons — The Eastern Africa Situation’, notes that women and children were favourite targets for well-organised trafficking rings, which operate freely for lack of solid laws against the vice.

World Population Awareness - Children

GANGS SMUGGLING YEMENI CHILDREN TO SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi and Yemeni officials said gangs in Yemen are kidnapping children and sending them to Saudi Arabia as beggars. Some families "rent their children" to these gangs for want of money. Children are mostly sent to Makkah and Madinah.

Child Trafficking: A Growing Problem In Yemen

The first workshop on child trafficking in Yemen was held here over the weekend to tackle the issue of children being illegally sent to work in Saudi Arabia and to bring the issue out into the open.

New Report Addresses ... Yemen’s Suffering Kids

www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=806&p=front&a=2

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

The problems of coming up with accurate numbers include the lack of facilities at borders required to determine children being sent abroad to work, the vast border region with Saudi Arabia which makes smuggling difficult to control, and few reports coming from families. Another difficulty is trying to distinguish between children traveling with their families or relatives and those being trafficked.

Parents, Children Complicit In Human Trafficking

www.yobserver.com/cgi-bin/yobserver/exec/view.cgi/1/3667

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

Human trafficking is an old problem in Yemen. Ever since the 1991 Gulf Crisis, workers have been willing to try illegal means to enter wealthier neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia to find work. However child-smuggling is a new phenomenon. The report found that most children started the journey accompanied by a direct relation, although some children traveled with other children instead. While many children embark on the journey voluntarily and with their parents’ consent, during the journey many children were threatened and beaten; others suffered from hunger and sexual abuse.

Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Partly Free

Human Rights Overview by Human Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide

Rude awakening

yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=738&p=culture&a=1

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

“Trafficking is the worst form of child labor in Yemen,” Thaira Shalan, Child Protection Officer at UNICEF based in Yemen, told Yemen Times. “It is horrendous.” Children handed over by their families to traffic agents are being smuggled into Saudi Arabia and are used for begging, theft or prostitution. UNICEF has gathered information that shows many of the children who are victims of trafficking have been abused.

UNICEF discovered child trafficking in Yemen a little over a year ago. While working with children spending time in prison and child labor, it came across children who had the experience of being shipped off to Saudi Arabia. “When we were working with street children, we discovered that there was a problem of child trafficking in the country that we were not aware of,” said Shalan. “These children started talking about their experiences. They had already been in Saudi Arabia, they were abused, and they talked to us about the horrendous conditions they went through

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Human Trafficking in [Yemen] [other countries]
Street Children in [Yemen] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Yemen] [other countries]