Labour migration and human trafficking : a case study of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

Abstract

Human Trafficking is on the rise in part due to the dramatic expansion of labour migration in the neoliberal era. The global migrant worker population grew from 175 million in 2000 to 232 million in 2013(UNESDA, 2013a). The GCC has more than 22 million migrant workers who are required to go through recruiters in order to obtain the required permits to work in the GCC. There exists limited governing bodies to regulate the activities of recruiters, thus migrant workers are at the mercy of recruiters who are known to charge exorbitant fees that indebt migrant workers prior to arriving at their destination countries, and provide false contracts which do not reflect the conditions in which migrant workers find themselves upon arrival at destination countries. This, in addition to the domestic migrant labour legislation in the GCC such as the Kafala System create, what this thesis argues, is state sanctioned trafficking and labour exploitation.