Human Trafficking
ILO and Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights discuss national legislation against human trafficking
The ILO and the Government of Yemen discuss draft national legislation to combat human trafficking and design an effective national strategy to ensure meaningful reform in the country.
During a national workshop on human trafficking in Yemen, ILO experts and representatives from the Yemeni government, academics and civil society representatives worked over 3 days to discuss revisions to the current draft national legislation to combat human trafficking and the research needed to design an effective national strategy to ensure meaningful reform in the country. The Ministry of Human Rights of Yemen has been spearheading these efforts, together with the ILO.
Participants agreed on a roadmap for legislative reform in Yemen to combat human trafficking, through the adoption of new legal norms that are in conformity with ILO Convention No. 29 and its supplementing Protocol and Recommendation. This is the first request, worldwide, received by the ILO to support a government in aligning national legislation to combat trafficking with the new Protocol supplementing ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labour, adopted at the recent international labour conference.
“The Yemeni Government is to be lauded for its commitment in taking a number of actions: it proposed a new anti-trafficking bill and set up a national committee to combat human trafficking, but much still needs to be done,” said Frank Hagemann, Deputy Director of the ILO Office for the Arab States.
“The ILO will share its technical comments on the draft legislation soon, and is prepared to support the research needed on such a sensitive topic as human trafficking in Yemen. This research will help identify the types of trafficking, what the key challenges are, and what can be done to tackle them. Without it, the effectiveness of any policies will be limited,” Hagemman added.
Mr. Fouad AlGhaffari, Director of the Minister’s Office, Ministry of Human Rights, said: “Today we find that we have all come to the same conclusion, feeling the pain and suffering of every single person subject to human trafficking and forced labour. This only adds to the sense of responsibility we all have, both internally within the country and with our neighbours. This workshop has really sounded the alarm over the difficulties facing Yemeni and migrant workers, and we welcome the implementation of the research which will build on the ILOs vast experience in this matter.”
The ILO estimated in 2012 that 20.9 million people across the world are victims of forced labour at any given point in time. In the Middle East, the ILO calculated that there are some 600,000 forced labour victims. Despite a lack of hard data on the precise scale and nature of the problem, increasing numbers of governments, social partners and civil society actors in the region have become engaged in tackling forced labour and human trafficking in recent years, with technical support from the ILO.
Participants agreed on a roadmap for legislative reform in Yemen to combat human trafficking, through the adoption of new legal norms that are in conformity with ILO Convention No. 29 and its supplementing Protocol and Recommendation. This is the first request, worldwide, received by the ILO to support a government in aligning national legislation to combat trafficking with the new Protocol supplementing ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labour, adopted at the recent international labour conference.
“The Yemeni Government is to be lauded for its commitment in taking a number of actions: it proposed a new anti-trafficking bill and set up a national committee to combat human trafficking, but much still needs to be done,” said Frank Hagemann, Deputy Director of the ILO Office for the Arab States.
“The ILO will share its technical comments on the draft legislation soon, and is prepared to support the research needed on such a sensitive topic as human trafficking in Yemen. This research will help identify the types of trafficking, what the key challenges are, and what can be done to tackle them. Without it, the effectiveness of any policies will be limited,” Hagemman added.
Mr. Fouad AlGhaffari, Director of the Minister’s Office, Ministry of Human Rights, said: “Today we find that we have all come to the same conclusion, feeling the pain and suffering of every single person subject to human trafficking and forced labour. This only adds to the sense of responsibility we all have, both internally within the country and with our neighbours. This workshop has really sounded the alarm over the difficulties facing Yemeni and migrant workers, and we welcome the implementation of the research which will build on the ILOs vast experience in this matter.”
The ILO estimated in 2012 that 20.9 million people across the world are victims of forced labour at any given point in time. In the Middle East, the ILO calculated that there are some 600,000 forced labour victims. Despite a lack of hard data on the precise scale and nature of the problem, increasing numbers of governments, social partners and civil society actors in the region have become engaged in tackling forced labour and human trafficking in recent years, with technical support from the ILO.