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Article

31 Aug 2022

Author:
David A. Yates, Liberian Observer (Liberia)

Oman: Kafala system enables recruitment agencies to exploit workers as 27 Liberian "trafficked" women are repatriated, says Liberian authority

"Oman Warned Not to Issue Visas to Liberians", 30 Aug 2022

...the Arab country becomes a hotspot for trafficking. Many women from Africa including Liberia are trafficked there...Its kafala system of employment ties migrant workers to the employer who brings them to the Gulf, allowing widespread exploitation to persist...

In Oman, employers confiscated passports, paid trafficking victims little salaries, forced them to work excessively long hours without breaks or days off, or denied them adequate food and living conditions. Some said their employers physically abused them, and a  few described sexual abuse.

This was what 27 women from Liberia were going through before their repatriation recently. 

Migrant workers seeking low-wage jobs continue to be at risk for trafficking under the visa-sponsorship employment system in Oman, which grants recruitment agencies and/or Omani visa sponsors significant control over workers’ residency and work visas and, therefore, their legal status in the country.