Bahrain Authorities Back Global Hotline To Assist Trafficking Victims

Manama- Bahrain government is working with global experts to set up an international hotline to assist victims of human trafficking,

The issue which is still in the infancy stage and was discussed during the Human Trafficking at crossroads Private-Public Partnership conference which concluded this week.

David Arkless, President of Manpower Inc. a world leader in the employment services industry said, " I am working with International Telecommunications Union(ITU) and British Telecom for the helpline. The basic idea is to set up a toll-free number worldwide for trafficking victims."

The conference was jointly chaired by Bahrain's First Lady, Shaikha Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa and Egypt´s first lady Suzanne Mubarak who was visiting the island.

As part of the proposed strategy, Arkless who is the Special Envoy to Suzanne Mubarak´s Women´s International Peace Movement (SMWIPM) said call centers will be set up to answer the calls.

" We have received good response from the Vietnamese government and the European Union who are backing our hotline initiative," Arkless stressed.

He said their aim was to set up the toll free hotline before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The Ministry of Labour has set up a hotline to receive complaints on human trafficking. In addition, a local human rights group also launched its own 24-hour helpline on Monday to register complaints and take action against traffickers.

According to UN estimates Human trafficking trade could be worth $32 billion in both sales of individuals and the value of their exploited labour.

" Our very systems allow for human trafficking to persist. Last month the UN Office for Drugs and Crime, one of the lead agencies in combating trafficking and slavery, reported that two out of every five countries covered in its Global Trafficking Report had not recorded a single conviction of traffickers," said Miguel D´Escoto Brockmnaa, President of the UN General Assembly.

Bahrain was removed from the US trafficking blacklist and was elevated to Tier-2 watch list, according to the 2008 report released by the US State Department.

The tiny island which hosts the US Navy Fifth Fleet, enacted a comprehensive law prohibiting all forms of human trafficking and imposed stiff penalties ranging from three to 15 years imprisonment.

The authorities have taken key steps by imposing new restrictions at airports and causeway to combat trafficking.The Bahrain Coastguard authorities placed high- tech detective devices to be operational at night to monitor human trafficking cases. This followed after the authorities detected 14 human trafficking cases from the Northern side of the Bahrain territorial waters.