Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

 is a destination and transit country for women and men from South

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

 and Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

 trafficked

Human trafficking

Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...

 for the purpose of forced labor. Jordan is also a destination for women from Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

 and Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 for prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

; there were no reports that any of these women were trafficked for sexual exploitation

Sexual slavery

Sexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...

. Women from Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, and the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 migrate willingly to work as domestic servants, but some are subjected to conditions of forced labor, including unlawful withholding of passports, restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse

Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...

. Trafficking of domestic worker

Domestic worker

A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...

s is facilitated by the fact that the normal protections provided to workers under Jordanian labor law do not apply either to domestic or agricultural laborers, leaving them highly vulnerable to abuse by exploitative employers. In response to a high rate of abuse of Filipina domestic workers by employers in Jordan, the Government of the Philippines instituted a ban on additional Filipina workers migrating to Jordan for domestic work during the reporting period. In addition, some Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

, Bangladeshi, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n, Sri Lankan, and Vietnamese men and women

Vietnamese people

The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...

 have encountered conditions similar to forced labor in several factories in Jordan’s Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZs), including unlawful withholding of passports; non-payment of wages; and physical abuse. In past years, Jordan was a transit country for South and Southeast Asian men deceptively recruited with fraudulent job offers in Jordan, but instead trafficked to work involuntarily in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. There have been no substantiated reports of this, however, during this reporting period.

The Government of Jordan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Nevertheless, Jordan is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons over the previous year, particularly in the area of law enforcement against trafficking for forced labor. The government made minimal efforts to investigate or prosecute numerous allegations related to exploitation of foreign domestic workers employed in Jordanian homes throughout the year. National labor laws do not apply to domestic or agricultural workers, including allegations of physical and sexual abuse. There were continuing reports of abusive conditions in some QIZ factories, but the number decreased from the preceding year. Though the government made some efforts to improve enforcement of its labor laws through inspections and administrative means, Jordan failed for a second year to criminally prosecute and punish those who committed acts of forced labor. Moreover, domestic and agricultural workers remain exempt from the protections of Jordan’s labor laws, facilitating the ability of unscrupulous employers to subject them to conditions of involuntary servitude. Jordan also continues to lack victim protection services, and its failure to distinguish between trafficking and illegal immigration creates vulnerability for punishment of victims of trafficking.

Prosecution

The Government of Jordan continued to make inadequate efforts to criminally punish trafficking offenders during the reporting period. Jordan does not specifically prohibit all forms of trafficking in persons, but the government prohibits slavery through its Anti-Slavery Law of 1929; prescribed penalties of up to three years’ imprisonment under this statute are not sufficiently stringent, but are commensurate with those penalties prescribed for grave crimes, such as rape. Neither labor nor sex trafficking is otherwise explicitly prohibited. However, the government can use statutes against kidnapping, assault, rape, withholding of passports, and physical restraint to prosecute trafficking-related offenses. In this reporting period, the government’s Human Rights Center hotline received 2,479 complaints, including some for conditions of forced labor; although authorities reported resolving 77 percent of these cases, the government did not provide evidence of any prosecutions, convictions, or jail sentences for forced labor of domestic workers. In addition, despite well-documented evidence of serious cases of forced labor in the QIZs from previous years, the government responded with primarily administrative penalties; courts convicted three individuals for physical abuse of foreign workers in a factory and sentenced them to fines rather than sufficient prison sentences that would create a deterrent against future forced labor crimes. The government shut down one factory in January 2008 after repeated violations of non-payment of wages, non-payment of overtime, physical abuse, and poor living conditions; no one has been prosecuted or criminally punished yet for these offenses. Through training of labor inspectors, almost all QIZ workers are reportedly in possession of their passports, and the number and severity of violations of workers’ rights decreased substantially. Nonetheless, in March, an NGO reported that 176 Vietnamese workers complained, that their employer forced them to work 14–18 hours per day, withheld their passports, and did not give them their promised wages. The government returned their passports and assisted workers who wished to be repatriated to return home.

Protection

The Government of Jordan made inadequate efforts to protect trafficking victims during the reporting period. Jordan does not operate a shelter for trafficking victims. The Government of Jordan provides non-financial support to international organizations that have anti-trafficking programs, such as UNIFEM and IOM. The government also lacks formal procedures to identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable groups, such as foreigners arrested for illegal migration or prostitution. As a result, some victims of trafficking are punished for acts committed as a result of being trafficked. In cases where foreign domestic workers run away from their employers or approach authorities to claim abuse, an employer will often accuse them of theft, for which they will be imprisoned. The government may put victims of sexual assault

Sexual assault

Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....

 – including foreign workers assaulted by their employers – into jail. In February, the Ministry of Interior waived over-stay fines for 185 runaway Filipina domestic workers in order to allow them to be repatriated, but did not report helping them receive compensation for their abuses. Other workers who are unable to pay their overstay fines – including those who run away from abusive employers or who are out of legal status because their employers did not file necessary documents – may be imprisoned until their fines are paid and then deported. Victims are not encouraged to participate in investigations against their employers; sources allege that workers are discouraged from filing complaints or pressing charges and that some police dissuade workers from formally lodging claims for sexual assault. The government does not provide foreign victims of trafficking with legal alternatives to removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution.

Prevention

Jordan made limited efforts to prevent trafficking in persons this reporting period. The Ministry of Labor trained labor inspectors on anti-trafficking, and recruitment agencies on the rights of domestic workers. The government continued to publish a guidebook for domestic workers on their rights and offered hotline numbers that workers can call to report abuse. Although the Government did not financially sponsor anti-trafficking campaigns for workers in the QIZ factories, government officials participated in anti-trafficking seminars for QIZ factory management and workers organized by international and non-governmental organizations. Jordan made no discernible effort to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. Similarly, the government did not institute a public awareness campaign or other measure targeting citizens traveling to known child sex tourism

Child sex tourism

Child sex tourism is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, that is commercially-facilitated child sexual abuse...

 destinations abroad, although there is no indication that Jordan is a point of origin for child sex tourism. Jordan has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.