U.S. blasts Saudis, others on human trafficking

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Possible penalties
Countries that fail to do enough to eliminate human trafficking can be subject to a variety of punishments, including the withholding of some kinds of U.S. foreign aid. The United States will not cut off trade and humanitarian aid, the report said.

Countries that receive no such assistance can be declared ineligible to taker part in cultural and educational exchange programs.

Countries that were on the list in 2004 and have been removed from this year’s list are Bangladesh, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana and Sierra Leone.

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Congress began requiring the annual reports in 2000.

The United States spends $96 million to help other countries combat trafficking, Rice wrote in a forward to the report.

One U.S. official, who asked not to be named, suggested the real impact of the report was that the stigma it created rather than any threat of sanctions.

“No country wants to be on this list because they do not want to be seen as not working effectively and actively against this problem,” he said.

No comment from Saudis
Saudi officials were not immediately available to comment on the expected criticism.

Victims of trafficking in Saudi Arabia come mainly from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to work as domestic servants and laborers while others from Africa are forced into begging rings, according to last year’s State Department report.

In the cases of Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, the State Department also said boys were trafficked and forced to work as camel jockeys.

In Qatar, the government banned the use of child jockeys in May. Rights groups say several thousand boys, some as young as three, work as jockeys in the Gulf Arab region’s lucrative races.

Many governments, particularly those rebuked in the State Department’s annual rights reports, complain the United States has little credibility in criticizing other nations because of scandals in recent years involving U.S. abuse of prisoners.

The full report is online at www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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