The US Department of State has issued its 2005 report on Human Trafficking. The full, 258-page document (in PDF format) can be found here.

Saudi Arabia, along with most of the Arab Gulf states, ends up in Tier 3, indicating the greatest level of concern based on volume of traffic and the lack of effective government response to the problem. (Bahrain and Oman are placed in Tier 2; only 25 countries are in Tier 1). The discussion of why Saudi Arabia is placed in the third rank can be found starting at Page 187 of the document (Page 188 of the PDF).

The problem in Saudi Arabia is primarily abuse of labor. Millions of foreign workers are employed in Saudi Arabia in jobs ranging from top management to manual and domestic labor. Current labor laws cover only part of this population, with nearly no legal protection at all for domestic labor. Ostensibly, all residents in the country are to be protected by Shari’a law. Implementation of that protection, however, is neither uniform nor widespread.

The State report notes that there is very little protection–legal or even physical–available to abused workers. There are shelters in the major cities for women and children, but there are none for men. The report notes, too, that there has been very little effective litigation to protect workers or to punish abusers and traffickers, though it does point out that several labor recruiting firms have been formally banned.

There’s much that needs to be done here, starting with the creation of effective laws and the enforcement of existing laws. But the solution will rest on changing Saudi attitudes toward foreign workers–and the outside world in general. There are signs that this is beginning to take place. The Saudi media–both English and Arabic–constantly run articles, op-eds, and letters-to-the-editor that describe abuses and the actions taken to mitigate them. The State Dept. report also notes that imams in the mosques are reminding worshipers of their religious obligations toward their fellow men. It’s a start, but it’s also a very long road that needs to be traversed before this serious problem is solved.

UPDATE: The Saudi government is concerned enough about the Human Trafficking Report to respond to it. Their response, as carried by the Arab News begins:

US Trafficking Report Biased, Says Kingdom
Maha Akeel, Arab News

JEDDAH, 5 June 2005 — Saudi Arabia yesterday disagreed with a US State Department report accusing Riyadh of human trafficking, and said the report was “neither objective nor impartial” as it ignored abuses in the United States and Europe…