Chief Executive Officer of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), Noof Abdulrahman Jamsheer, has affirmed Bahrain’s keenness to share its efforts to consolidate the culture of respecting human rights and combating trafficking in persons with the International Community, by putting its accumulated experiences in this field at the disposal of countries wishing to develop procedures and mechanisms to address this international crime.
In a press statement marking the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, observed worldwide on July 30, LMRA chief asserted that trafficking in persons is an international cross-border crime that contributes to harming people and disintegrating society, calling on the international community to step up its efforts to end this crime, which is a flagrant violation of the human rights of those who fall into the hands of traffickers, whether in their countries or abroad.
“Over the past years, the Kingdom has been keen to devise its policy to combat trafficking in persons through the continuous development of legislative, procedural and administrative tools to keep pace with the developments of this crime, within an integrated system implemented by all relevant government departments in order to hold offenders accountable, as well as protect the victims and the community,” Jamsheer said.
Jamsheer pointed out that the Kingdom has begun to lay the solid foundations to combat this crime by enacting the first integrated law that defines cases of trafficking in persons and imposes penalties against anyone who withholds the freedom of workers, exploits them or traffics in them.
She added that the kingdom has also launched a set of projects and programmes that contribute to strengthening proactive protection and prevention to reduce the possibility of committing trafficking in persons-related crimes, including the Wage Protection System, the Optional Insurance System for Domestic Expatriate Employees, the Expatriate Employee Transfer, and the National Referral Mechanism for Victims of Trafficking in Persons that ensures the effective and documented management of all cases, in addition to the allocation of a court to consider cases of trafficking in persons.
She pointed out that the kingdom’s policies and procedures in fighting trafficking in persons have been recognised by the International Community, citing Bahrain’s success in retaining its Tier 1 Status in the US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report, for the fifth year in a row, the highest international annual rating in government anti-trafficking performance.
She indicated that on the occasion of the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, Bahrain renews its interest and determination to support international efforts to address this crime by transferring all its legislative, institutional and procedural expertise to all countries wishing to do so, noting that the Regional Centre of Excellence for Capacity Building in the Field of Combatting Trafficking in Persons, one of the kingdom’s initiatives to spread the culture of fighting trafficking in person, is the first of its kind in the region, and is deemed as the house of expertise for combatting trafficking in persons.
The Regional Centre of Excellence for Capacity Building is a milestone in Bahrain’s mechanism of combating trafficking and reinforces Bahrain’s pioneering experience. It delivers specialised training courses for frontliners who deal with victims or potential victims, based on their scope and nature of work with various authorities and ministries, as well as any other entities that are concerned with identifying or dealing with victims of trafficking, while aiming to raise the awareness of those frontliners and develop their capabilities in the field of combating trafficking in persons.
LMRA chief underlined the importance of concerted international efforts to combat the crime of trafficking in persons, expressing hope that international efforts will succeed in curbing and eliminating this crime.