MANAMA, 10 January 2008 — Bahrain moved to crack down yesterday on human trafficking as the Gulf state prepared to host US President George W. Bush, whose administration has accused Manama of trafficking in people. King Hamad Bin Issa Al-Khalifa promulgated the law combating human trafficking, which provides for imprisonment and fines for perpetrators, the official BNA news agency reported.
The United States, which has a free trade agreement with Bahrain, has criticized other Gulf Arab allies for failing to take steps to effectively curb human trafficking. “The law stipulates that the penalty for a human trafficking crime would be prison and a fine ranging from 2,000 Bahrain dinars ($5,319) to 10,000 dinars,” the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) said on its website.
The law also calls for the formation of a committee to combat human trafficking. The BNA did not say whether the law was now in effect. Like other Gulf Arab states, Bahrain relies heavily on expatriate labor — about a third of the island’s population of 743,000 people are foreign workers — and has been criticized by rights groups for not doing enough to protect them.
