A new report has found that over four hundred Sierra Leoneans working as domestic workers in Oman were victims of human trafficking. The report published today by Do Boid, a non-profit that promotes the right of migrant workers, reveals systematic and widespread abusive practices against these women including forced labor.

Much experienced deceptive recruitment, long working hours, restriction of movement, and discrimination. Around one-third of them suffered sexual abuse. There are roughly 158, 537 migrant domestic workers in Oman who, according to Do Bold are often victims of human rights abuses including forced labor, wage theft, and physical abuse.

The report details where these women are from. Sierra Leone become rapped in Oman and have no access ss a grievance mechanism of any protective measures against them. Domestic workers often must pay a charge for absconding and release money. There are gaps in legislation to protect them, which provide the employee with more power than the domestic worker. The kafala (sponship) system is used in the Gulf to monitor migrant workers and gives employers excessive control over them and facilitates their abuse and exploitation according to Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Maria’s, one of the women interviewed for Do Bold’s report, said that when she tried to return to Sierra Leone her recruitment agent beat her and then locked her in a room without food or water for a week.

Due to several limitations on civil society in Oman, domestic workers have little support, and if they complain their situation can worsen.

Another woman Fatmata said when she complained about the treatment in the house in which she was working, including that she had to sleep on the highway as she wasn’t given a bed or a bedroom, they lower her salary by forty percent.

Recruitment often takes place deceptively with some women being told they are going to work in the US or the UK.

A was told she had been given a job in Iraq as a domestic worker but in 2021 landed in Oman. She was paid almost $300 less a month than she had been promised and worked 18 hours daily.

Do Bold has called on the government to monitor human trafficking and allow domestic workers in the county recourse to justice