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Newsjock

(11,733 posts)
Mon May 18, 2015, 08:00 AM May 2015

Arrested for reporting on Qatar's World Cup labourers

Source: BBC News

By Mark Lobel
BBC News, Doha


We were invited to Qatar by the prime minister's office to see new flagship accommodation for low-paid migrant workers in early May - but while gathering additional material for our report, we ended up being thrown into prison for doing our jobs.

... During a pause in proceedings, one officer whispered that I couldn't make a phone call to let people know where we were. He explained that our detention was being dealt with as a matter of national security.

An hour into my grilling, one of the interrogators brought out a paper folder of photographs which proved they had been trailing me in cars and on foot for two days since the moment I'd arrived.

... I can only report on what has happened now that our travel ban has been lifted. ... Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty International's Gulf migrant rights researcher, told us the detentions of journalists and activists could be attempts "to intimidate those who seek to expose labour abuse in Qatar".

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32775563

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JonLP24

(29,322 posts)
4. Its the outcome of how any business is done in Saudi Arabia-Kuwait-Qatar
Mon May 18, 2015, 10:14 AM
May 2015

Its the status quo but I only see the outrage when it comes a World Cup from Western sources no less who virtually ignore it for the most part. The same migrant labor used to construct the World Cup sites is the very same one the US uses for a military occupation for well over a decade and bribery & corruption is rampant because the defense contractors & US military officers in Arif Jan were soliciting bribes for business contracts wow FIFA? They gave them the World Cup knowing they were going to do this since US & European companies profit from the same labor market which they do everyday. 70% of Qatar's population are imported labor.


I. MIGRANT LABOR AND THE U.S. MILITARY
Over the past decade, migrant labor from third countries has become indispensable
to the U.S. military’s ability to sustain extended land wars. The military
privatization revolution has drawn widespread attention, analysis, and critique,
with a considerable focus on how the structure of contracting arrangements has
encouraged fraud, waste, and abuse by corporations.23 Far less attention, however,
has been paid to one major aspect of privatization, namely offshoring military
tasks to foreign subcontractors and workers.24 This Part demonstrates the importance
of TCNs for the U.S. military presence in the greater Middle East area
managed by CENTCOM, including Afghanistan and Iraq. It then demonstrates
how military offshoring was shaped by the U.S. presence in the Persian
Gulf, where privatization intersected with the region’s own patterns of recruiting
and managing migrant labor—giving rise to practices the U.S. government itself
often criticizes on human rights grounds. Finally, this Part reviews the major
types of exploitation and abuse endured by military migrant workers.

Military privatization, however, is not simply an abstract process that unfolds
in the same way across space and time. Crucial to understanding the rise of
TCN labor in particular was the post-Cold War military’s shift to a new center of
gravity: the Persian Gulf. The 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait marked a major
shift in the global U.S. military posture, with the deployment of large ground
forces to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as a counterbalance to both Iraq and Iran.
Since then, U.S. bases in the Gulf have been key staging areas for operations in
Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Unlike the major overseas hubs of the Cold
War military in Western Europe and East Asia, the Gulf economies were built in
large part on foreign migrant labor. Large numbers of noncitizens reside in Qatar
(86.5 percent of the population), the U.A.E. (70 percent), Kuwait (68.8 percent),
Bahrain (39.1 percent), and Saudi Arabia (27.8 percent).40 Indeed, the military
and police services of the Arab Gulf states themselves also make extensive use of
foreign labor, at both the rank-and-file and officer levels. The U.A.E. and Qatari
militaries employ large numbers of contractors from Pakistan, Egypt, and other
37. See Dickinson, supra note 14, at 203–05; RASOR & BAUMAN, supra note 23, at 249–50.
38. See Summer Barkley, LOGCAP IV Overview—Civilian Contractors Supporting the Forces in OEF,
U.S. ARMY (Dec. 2, 2011), http://www.army.mil/article/70193/LOGCAP_IV_overview____
civilian_contractors_supporting_the_forces_in_OEF.
39. See George Cahlink, Army of Contractors, 34 GOV’T EXEC. 2, Feb. 2002, at 43, 46 (“[A]bout 5,000
of the company’s 5,500 workers in Kosovo are local residents, making the firm Kosovo’s largest
employer.”).

40. See BARRY MIRKIN, POPULATION LEVELS, TRENDS AND POLICIES IN THE ARAB REGION:
CHALLENGES AND

countries.41 Bahrain’s extensive reliance on Pakistanis and other foreigners has
attracted considerable attention since the 2011 uprising.42
The Gulf states’ migrant-driven economy converged with the changes in
U.S. military logistics: Companies specializing in recruiting migrant labor for
construction, logistics, and security in the petroleum and related industries were
well-poised to lend their services to the U.S. military. Over preceding decades,
Gulf regimes crushed budding labor movements that emerged around the oil industry43
and replaced them with large numbers of migrants, all while extending
state largesse to pacify and co-opt the citizenry. In contrast, contractors at the
major U.S. airbase at İncirlik, Turkey, were forced into arbitration with local unions
after major strikes in the late 1980s and early 1990s. One U.S. military contractor
complained of the Turkish workers having a “home-field advantage”;44 in
countries such as Kuwait, such concerns did not exist. As a result, large U.S. military
contractors such as KBR, DynCorp, and Fluor can draw from a variety of
smaller multinational companies to recruit and transfer workers through the
Gulf. One Dubai-based company operating on bases in Afghanistan, Ecolog,
was founded by an ethnic Albanian entrepreneur providing services to NATO
peacekeepers in Kosovo.45 One of the leading recruiters of Ugandan security
guards for the U.S. military, Dreshak Group, is also based in Dubai but was
founded in Pakistan.46

C. Exploitation and Abuse
Human rights activists and journalists have done considerable work in exposing
the abuses faced by TCNs from poor countries, whose situation has

been likened to indentured servitude or slavery.47 While service members and
TCNs may work side by side on U.S. bases, a complex web of entities often
shields the U.S. government from responsibility for TCN workers. Prime contractors
hire subcontractors (often foreign companies) to fulfill specific task orders.
Subcontractors in turn use recruiting agencies to find and bring workers
from other locations. In practice, there may be even more subcontractors and
other intermediaries involved. Between the links in the contracting chain, responsibility
is often obscured or displaced, facilitating abuse and exploitation.
These problems are, of course, endemic to many situations of labor migration
around the world; for TCNs, however, the employer is ultimately the U.S. government.
The plaintiffs’ allegations in Adhikari v. Daoud, a lawsuit that has been
pending in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas since 2008,
illustrate some of the most egregious practices concerning TCNs. The plaintiffs
in Adhikari, mostly deceased and proceeding through kin, were Nepalis allegedly
promised jobs in luxury hotels in Jordan that paid $500 per month.48 They were
hired by a Nepali labor recruiter working on contract with a Jordanian job brokerage
company and transported by another Jordanian company to Amman, all at
the behest of Daoud and Partners, a Jordanian firm that was in turn subcontracted
by KBR.49 After each paying up to $3,500 in recruitment fees—paid for by
loans charging exorbitant interest—the plaintiffs arrived in Jordan only to have
their passports taken away.50 They were then put in an unprotected convoy
bound for Al Asad Air Force base in Ramadi, northern Iraq.51 Along the way,
Iraqi rebels seized a dozen of the Nepalis; they beheaded one and executed the
others with gunshots to the head.52

http://www.uclalawreview.org/offshoring-the-army-migrant-workers-and-the-u-s-military-2/

I wanted to highlight the key areas of where they got the idea. I got post articles but KBR gets the contract who gives a contract (after they solicit bribes to give the bribe -- I could post some articles on Kuwait alone but look for "suitcases full of cash", Kuwait, Arif Jan 2005 to probably about 2008 the difference between military and contractors is the military has a criminal justice system within itself with a CID as like an elite investigative unit a step way above military police) caught the Army officers who did it.

Anyway, the labor issue was KBR but bribery is like the only thing you ever see a prosecution for. You can do whatever want, abuse the hell out of them but give someone a bribe -- KBR a subsidary of Halliburton violated the "Corrupt Business Act" 20 times with 20th time for bribery for a oil contract in Nigeria which led to an uncovering of offshore banks with over a trillion that is simply money for bribes. Its not isolated at all, CorpWatch & Al-Jazeera were the main ones doing long term reporting on this.

A U.S. Fortress Rises in Baghdad:
Asian Workers Trafficked to Build World's Largest Embassy



John Owens didn’t realize how different his job would be from his last 27 years in construction until he signed on with First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting in November 2005. Working as general foreman, he would be overseeing an army of workers building the largest, most expensive and heavily fortified US embassy in the world. Scheduled to open in 2007, the sprawling complex near the Tigris River will equal Vatican City in size.

Then seven months into the job, he quit.

Not one of the five different US embassy sites he had worked on around the world compared to the mess he describes. Armenia, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon and Cambodia all had their share of dictators, violence and economic disruption, but the companies building the embassies were always fair and professional, he says. The Kuwait-based company building the $592-million Baghdad project is the exception. Brutal and inhumane, he says “I’ve never seen a project more fucked up. Every US labor law was broken.”

<snip>

He also complained of poor sanitation, squalid living conditions and medical malpractice in the labor camps where several thousand low-paid migrant workers lived. Those workers, recruited on the global labor market from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and other poor south Asian countries, earned as little as $10 to $30 a day.

As with many US-funded contractors, First Kuwaiti prefers importing labor because it views Iraqi workers as a security headache not worth the trouble.

No Questions Asked

By March 2006, First Kuwaiti’s operation began looking even sketchier to Owens as he boarded a nondescript white jet on his way back to Baghdad following some R&R in Kuwait city. He remembers being surrounded by about 50 First Kuwaiti laborers freshly hired from the Philippines and India. Everyone was holding boarding passes to Dubai – not to Baghdad.

“I thought there was some sort of mix up and I was getting on the wrong plane,” says the 48-year-old Floridian who once worked as a fisherman with his father before moving into the construction business.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14173

I deployed in '06-'07 (ironically to Arif Jan during the same years of the huge bribery scandal but Zone 1 was a different world to Zone 6 but I now know why all those "Nova" (Arabic on the other side) had all those water bottle boxes all over Kuwait-Iraq, it was like the water bottle supply was endless, everyone stacked water bottle boxes to put their TVs and game systems as a stand with water bottle boxes to sit on. Some choose to stack up a wall with water bottle boxes to create like a room which was like a warehouse with bunks and lockers -- the PCBS. Arif Jan was "point A" where we began by going to the work compound to pick them up (Kuwaiti company -- UCLA law review study mentions the same one or one of the ones was the same company we drove inside their gates)-- the long haul supply convoys with 25 TCNs driving fiberglass Mercedes semi-trucks no weapon or armor with them being constantly targeted for truck hijacks, especially at the Navistar border crossing & while most of the missions were non-eventful, the one time we did receive small arms fire all the bullets hit the TCN vehicle shredding the tires & hitting an inch below the floor board where he feet were on top of. Every base -- except for Taji -- is while we went to tents or trailers (except for TQ which was this very large building with huge opening inside which were bunks of everybody in town -- got the flu there) the TCNs had to stay at the truck staging area with 2 soldiers detailed to "watch the TCNs". Those were 30 vehicle military convoys so they delivered most of the supplies to US military bases with bigger risks to themselves for what one said was about $300, the head guy (they one who understood the most English) received about $600. They were used to serve every meal which they weren't authorized to eat the meals because the wort a US civilian or defense contractor nor a US-military. The border crossings going back into Kuwait was after we drove up and parked and waited for the guards to search their vehicles and if they had a bottle of alcohol or something they were done. While they make compromises for Western civilian workers & military, their laws apply to labor where Sri Linka maids are executed on a weekly basis mostly for the crime of "witchcraft" in Saudi Arabia.

the media was doing such a poor job that I didn't even know they existed until I got there. I was imaging all this work we'd have to but all this was taken care of but the worst part is they treat them as if they were generally treated with racism, and the way everything was set-up is the TCN had to be watched & accountable at all times. The reason why Taji was different is because that base had a compound where all the TCNs went inside this gated area with contractors handling the "watch the TCNs" part but they spoke of how much they liked going to Taji because they could take showers, sleep in a bed, this was also where all the black market alcohol purchases happened. Alcohol cost like $60-$70 a water bottle for some of the worst tasting stuff ever. Many were Muslim but not all so alcohol wasn't an issue for some. They just don't take the risks leaving or going into Kuwait.

I've been mentioning this for years to people who were simply unconcerned. One said "Oh, like Mexicans" another compared it to military recruiters (when I mentioned the bait and switch recruiting but its not same thing. Promised jobs working at a hotel in Dubai then having your passports taken going into Iraq. Shameful. For years, but I remember the long threads here of outrage of the Qatar world cup workers but where was the media during all those years in Iraq? Everyone wants to bring up wasteful defense spending & I was the subsidies cut big time but it is where they are saving money that offends me the most. I certainly am concerned for the workers whether they are World Cup workers, department of defense workers (their ultimate employer anyway), or just the everyday workers but a lot of this seems to be more about outrage over Qatar receiving the World Cup rather than US or Europe who by the line-of-reasoning shouldn't get it either since they loved the idea so much they used it since the Gulf war.

Divernan

(15,480 posts)
2. Qatar most corrupt choice ever for World Cup
Mon May 18, 2015, 08:59 AM
May 2015

A horrible choice in so many ways. The games have already had to switched to winter because of the 120 degree temps in the summer.

Human Rights Watch, which has highlighted Qatar’s poor record on labour conditions, described the arrests as “jaw-droppingly awful PR”. It pointed out that last week a German television crew was also arrested on a tour of Qatar.

HRW Gulf researcher Nicholas McGeehan said: “Qatar put itself in the harshest of spotlights when it won the right to host 2022 and this is not the way to deal with the inevitable press attention. If it wants to put an end to media criticism, it needs to make some serious reforms to its labour system. Claiming that the arrest and intimidation of BBC journalists was legitimate on account of their “trespassing” is probably the lowest point so far in a dismal series of PR disasters.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/18/fifa-to-investigate-arrest-of-bbc-news-team-in-qatar


14 Reasons Why The Qatar World Cup Is Going To Be A Disaster

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-world-cup-problems-2014-4#ixzz3aUjCfxnJ

http://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-world-cup-problems-2014-4

JonLP24

(29,322 posts)
5. Qatar managed to evade the harshest of spotlights the same ones the Department of Defense
Mon May 18, 2015, 10:43 AM
May 2015

evaded. It is quite remarkably since this was openly going on for over a decade and there are case trials going back to the early 90s dealing with this very same thing when it came to US companies who are mostly shielded from responsibility or accountability.
The UCLA Law Review study really should be be read in its entirety


The structure of the TVPA’s current civil action mechanisms results in a
situation where those who are most directly responsible for TCN labor conditions
can evade jurisdiction while the ultimate beneficiaries of those conditions
can readily demonstrate ignorance of them. These two problems are, of course,
interlinked: Without the capability to pursue discovery against non-U.S. subcontractors,
plaintiffs are likely to face even greater obstacles in procuring evidence of
U.S. corporate knowledge about the treatment of TCN workers.

The history of the sole TVPA lawsuit filed by TCN workers so far,161
Adhikari v. Daoud Partners, mentioned above, illustrates this point. The district
court in 2013 dismissed TVPA claims against Daoud Partners, the Jordanian
subcontractor, because it was not “present in the United States” for the purposes
of the statute.162 Yet earlier on, the Adhikari court found that sufficient contacts
existed between Daoud Partners and the forum state (in this case, Texas) to support
personal jurisdiction over it. In order to determine personal jurisdiction, the
Adhikari court investigated whether Daoud had “substantial, continuous, and
systematic” contacts with Texas, using the multifactor balancing test developed
by the Supreme Court in Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S.A. v. Hall

that although Daoud was headquartered in Jordan, it was registered there as a
“non-operating foreign company” and did all of its business on U.S. military bases
in Iraq, almost entirely in dollar-denominated transactions.164 Moreover, the
court found that Daoud availed itself of the protections of U.S. law in multiple
ways, including signing contracts with U.S. corporations that specified U.S. fora
for the purposes of dispute resolution, litigating cases under the Federal Tort
Claims Act and the Defense Base Act, and obtaining trademark protection for its
business logo from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.165 Hence, Daoud is
an example of the missing link in the chain of contractor responsibility: U.S.
courts may enjoy jurisdiction over foreign subcontractors for a variety of matters
but not for civil suits under the TVPA. In other words, Daoud’s responsibilities
under U.S. law seem to run in only one direction: toward U.S. entities, and away
from foreign workers.

While the TVPA effectively lets foreign subcontractors off the hook, it
hardly ensures accountability for the U.S. prime contractors that hire them either.
Here, the problem is less jurisdictional and more a question of vicarious liability
and evidence. Since the 2008 amendments, the TVPA’s jurisdictional reach for
abuses against TCNs abroad undoubtedly extends to U.S. corporations. Such
prime contractors would be exposed to possible liability for “knowingly benefit[
ing] . . . from participation in a venture which that person knew or should have
known has engaged” in trafficking-related abuses.166 The overall thrust of this
constructive knowledge standard is to discourage U.S. corporations from inquiring
into the practices of their subcontractors.167 True, recent regulatory develop

<snip>

Soldiers from allied or client
states—as well as U.S. service members from dependent territories—are tied to a
social contract with their own governments, which in turn have exercised their
sovereign rights in choosing to fight alongside or on behalf of the United States.
Even private contractors can be tentatively included in the social contract if they
are U.S. citizens. While citizen-contractors do not occupy the same place in the
American political imagination that service members do, their membership in
the polity entitles them to some degree of political participation and visibility, to
say nothing of marginally greater access to legal remedies.178 Moreover, many of
them are also veterans, ensuring considerable overlap between the categories of
citizen-soldier and citizen-contractor. Mateo Taussig-Rubbo has identified
ways in which citizen-contractor losses have been treated as national sacrifices,
such as when the United States launched an assault on Fallujah to avenge the
death of four Blackwater contractors, as well as the occasional awarding of medals
to contractors.179 Even the overwhelming emphasis on U.S. citizens in news coverage
and scholarship on military contractors—at the expense of the foreign
workers who constitute the vast majority of the contractor workforce—reflects
the inclusion of U.S. citizen contractors in the national imagination.
For these reasons, it is unsurprising that there appear to be no systemic efforts
to compile data on TCN casualties. There are no publicly available official
statistics for TCN deaths in Afghanistan.180 For Iraq, I have found only one attempted
account so far: A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
(SIGIR) identified 111 TCNs killed in support of U.S. government
operations between May 1, 2003 and August 31, 2010, including those working
in support of the State Department and USAID.181 This is almost certain to be a
significant undercount, for several reasons. First, SIGIR arrived at its figure
largely through consulting media reports, supplemented by data from USAID

The article is really difficult to copy and paste I went skipped over the part where it begins with there is a reason the US uses the term "TCNs" Bush era design by using a different word so the regular laws wouldn't apply (neither soldier or mercenary) like "enemy combatant"

Soldiers from allied or client
states—as well as U.S. service members from dependent territories—are tied to a
social contract with their own governments, which in turn have exercised their
sovereign rights in choosing to fight alongside or on behalf of the United States.
Even private contractors can be tentatively included in the social contract if they
are U.S. citizens. While citizen-contractors do not occupy the same place in the
American political imagination that service members do, their membership in
the polity entitles them to some degree of political participation and visibility, to
say nothing of marginally greater access to legal remedies.178 Moreover, many of
them are also veterans, ensuring considerable overlap between the categories of
citizen-soldier and citizen-contractor. Mateo Taussig-Rubbo has identified
ways in which citizen-contractor losses have been treated as national sacrifices,
such as when the United States launched an assault on Fallujah to avenge the
death of four Blackwater contractors, as well as the occasional awarding of medals
to contractors.179 Even the overwhelming emphasis on U.S. citizens in news coverage
and scholarship on military contractors—at the expense of the foreign
workers who constitute the vast majority of the contractor workforce—reflects
the inclusion of U.S. citizen contractors in the national imagination.
For these reasons, it is unsurprising that there appear to be no systemic efforts
to compile data on TCN casualties. There are no publicly available official
statistics for TCN deaths in Afghanistan.180 For Iraq, I have found only one attempted
account so far: A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
(SIGIR) identified 111 TCNs killed in support of U.S. government
operations between May 1, 2003 and August 31, 2010, including those working
in support of the State Department and USAID.181 This is almost certain to be a
significant undercount, for several reasons. First, SIGIR arrived at its figure
largely through consulting media reports, supplemented by data from USAID

Soldiers from allied or client
states—as well as U.S. service members from dependent territories—are tied to a
social contract with their own governments, which in turn have exercised their
sovereign rights in choosing to fight alongside or on behalf of the United States.
Even private contractors can be tentatively included in the social contract if they
are U.S. citizens. While citizen-contractors do not occupy the same place in the
American political imagination that service members do, their membership in
the polity entitles them to some degree of political participation and visibility, to
say nothing of marginally greater access to legal remedies.178 Moreover, many of
them are also veterans, ensuring considerable overlap between the categories of
citizen-soldier and citizen-contractor. Mateo Taussig-Rubbo has identified
ways in which citizen-contractor losses have been treated as national sacrifices,
such as when the United States launched an assault on Fallujah to avenge the
death of four Blackwater contractors, as well as the occasional awarding of medals
to contractors.179 Even the overwhelming emphasis on U.S. citizens in news coverage
and scholarship on military contractors—at the expense of the foreign
workers who constitute the vast majority of the contractor workforce—reflects
the inclusion of U.S. citizen contractors in the national imagination.
For these reasons, it is unsurprising that there appear to be no systemic efforts
to compile data on TCN casualties. There are no publicly available official
statistics for TCN deaths in Afghanistan.180 For Iraq, I have found only one attempted
account so far: A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
(SIGIR) identified 111 TCNs killed in support of U.S. government
operations between May 1, 2003 and August 31, 2010, including those working
in support of the State Department and USAID.181 This is almost certain to be a
significant undercount, for several reasons. First, SIGIR arrived at its figure
largely through consulting media reports, supplemented by data from USAID

from the link I posted above (copying and pasting from my PDF)

I say shine the spotlight on everyone, it is wrong no matter who does it right?

Human trafficking in Saudi Arabia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

With respect to human trafficking, Saudi Arabia was designated, together with Bolivia, Ecuador, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Burma, Jamaica, Venezuela, Cambodia, Kuwait, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea, and Togo, as a Tier 3 country by the United States Department of State in its 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report required by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 on which this article was originally based. Tier 3 countries are "countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so." The 2006 report shows some effort by the Kingdom to address the problems, but continues to classify the Kingdom as a Tier 3 country. The report recommends, "The government should enforce existing Islamic laws that forbid the mistreatment of women, children, and laborers..." Both the 2007 and the 2008 Trafficking in Persons Reports designate Saudi Arabia as a Tier 3 country.[1]

The Government of Saudi Arabia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. The government continues to lack adequate anti-trafficking laws, and, despite evidence of widespread trafficking abuses, did not report any criminal prosecutions, convictions, or prison sentences for trafficking crimes committed against foreign domestic workers. The government similarly did not take law enforcement action against trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation in Saudi Arabia, or take any steps to provide victims of sex trafficking with protection. The Saudi government also made no discernable effort to employ procedures to identify and refer victims to protective services.[1]

Saudi Arabia is a destination for men and women from South East Asia and East Africa trafficked for the purpose of labor exploitation, and for children from Yemen, Afghanistan, and Africa trafficking for forced begging. Hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers from Pakistan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya migrate voluntarily to Saudi Arabia; some fall into conditions of involuntary servitude, suffering from physical and sexual abuse, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, the withholding of travel documents, restrictions on their freedom of movement and non-consensual contract alterations. According to international organizations such as Ansar Burney Trust, young children from Bangladesh and India are also smuggled to Saudi Arabia to be used as jockeys. The children are underfed to reduce their weights, in order to lighten the load on the camel.

The Government of Saudi Arabia does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Saudi Arabia has moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 because of its lack of progress in anti-trafficking efforts, particularly its failure to protect victims and prosecute those guilty of involuntary servitude. Despite reports of trafficking and abuses of domestic and other unskilled workers and children, there is evidence of only one Saudi Government prosecution of a Saudi employer for a trafficking-related offense during the reporting period. Some victims of abuse, due to procedural hurdles, choose to leave the country rather than confront their abusers in court. They are required first to file a complaint with the police before they are allowed access to shelters. The government offers no legal aid to foreign victims and does not otherwise assist them in using the Saudi criminal justice system to bring their exploiters to justice. If a victim chooses to file a complaint, he or she is not allowed to work. The Saudi Government does, however, provide food and shelter for female workers who file complaints or run away from their employers. Criminal cases are adjudicated under Sharia law, and there is no evidence trafficking victims are accorded legal assistance before and during Sharia legal proceedings.

<snip>

Events in the United States

Saudi Arabians who travel or reside abroad may be accompanied by servants who are held in servitude. It was reported in June 2005 in The Denver Post that a Saudi couple who resided in Aurora, Colorado had been accused of keeping their Indonesian maid in captivity for 4 years forcing her to cook and clean. Homaidan Al-Turki, the husband, was also accused of repeatedly raping the young woman. According to law enforcement authorities: the maid's passport had been taken from her; she was paid about $2.00 a day; rapes occurred on a weekly basis. The maid entered the couples service at 17 through an Indonesian employment agency as a domestic worker. She flew to Riyadh and entered their service at a promised pay of $160 a month, but according to prosecutors had received only $3,300 for four years of work. The couple moved to the United States in 2000 accompanied by their maid. The couple was originally charged in federal court with involuntary servitude, punishable in cases involving sexual assault with life in prison. The husband was also charged in state court with multiple counts of sexual assault. The husband was convicted of 12 counts of forced sexual assault, two misdemeanors related to forced imprisonment, and theft for keeping the maid's wages and sentenced to 27 years to life. The case was a high profile one in Saudi Arabia, where the press portrayed him as a victim of Islamophobia.[citation needed] The Saudi government posted bail of $400,000. In November 2006, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers travelled to Saudi Arabia where he met with King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan to clear up "misperceptions" about the U.S. judicial system. His trip was sponsored by the US State Department. Al-Turki's wife, Sarah Khonaizan, who plead guilty to reduced state and federal charges, is to be deported from the US.[3] Following the state conviction, federal charges against Al-Turki were dropped.[4]

Another case involved Princess Buniah Al Saud, niece of Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who was arrested in Orlando, Florida and accused of pushing her Indonesian maid down a flight of stairs. The criminal case was resolved by a plea bargain to misdemeanor assault and payment of a small fine after the maid was refused a visa after traveling to Indonesia to her mother's funeral. The US Department of State has refused to explain their refusal to allow a material witness in a criminal case entry to the United States to testify. A civil suit for wages was settled.

A third allegation involved Hana Al Jader of Boston, Massachusetts who was accused of stealing the passports of 2 Indonesian women and forcing them to work as domestic servants.

A fourth allegiation involved the Saudi Diplomatic Mission in McLean, Virginia, where two persons were removed from the property after notifying locals about their slave-like conditions and abuse at the mansion in May 2013.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_Saudi_Arabia

I was trying to find the early 90s case law but I posted somewhere in a TPP thread (US labor rights leader mentioning the murders of union activists after the late 2000s labor protections)

JonLP24

(29,322 posts)
6. This article sums up Saudi's labor rights in a nutshell
Mon May 18, 2015, 11:05 AM
May 2015

Every time I search I come across articles of Sri Linka maids executed it happens so often but this one highlights what comes in addition to having no labor rights

Most Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Face Death Penalty

The activists said most of the 1.5 million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, of whom around 375,000 Sri Lankans, attracted to the country because of the prospect of working in a wealthy family but they also faced exploitation and abuse. It can include many months of hard work without pay to physical violence. They got a very weak legal protection. Their access to lawyers, translators and embassies often blocked.

Activist Human Rights Watch (HRW), Nisha Varia, told The Observer , "the Saudi justice system colored by arbitrary arrests, unfair trials and harsh punishment. One domestic worker harassment or exploitation of the employer may be able to escape but were later charged with theft. Employers can be accused of domestic workers, primarily from Indonesia, had a shaman. Victims of rape and sexual abuse are at risk to be accused of adultery and fornication. "

<snip>

Amnesty International researcher Saudi Arabia, Dina El-Mamoun, said the warning related to increased number of migrant workers who were sentenced to death. So far more than 120 foreigners were known to be under sentence of death. He said migrant workers in Saudi Arabia are at great risk if they end up in the criminal justice system. He added that the countries of origin of the workers should advise their citizens about the 'risks are very real and deadly' it.

Mamoun said, "In many cases they undergo a series of trials in which they did not understand the process, the conducted entirely in Arabic, and without translation. They are often not given access to consular assistance. "

http://internationaldaily-news.blogspot.com/2013/01/most-indonesian-migrant-workers-in.html

salimbag

(173 posts)
7. Concerning the term TCN
Mon May 18, 2015, 12:55 PM
May 2015

This has been used by the U.S. Govt since at least Vietnam and possibly before. U.S. contractors in Vietnam routinely filled positions with TCN personnel, and paid them less than half the U.S. citizen rate.

JonLP24

(29,322 posts)
9. I don't know anything about that civilian workers in that era
Mon May 18, 2015, 01:43 PM
May 2015

it could have something to do with 47(2) of the 1977 First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions the addresses Mercenaries and so many other international laws the regulate the use of "mercenaries"

A UN convention that went into effect in 2001 criminalizes anyone who “recruits, uses, finances or
trains” mercenaries as well as any mercenaries who participate in combat. UN International
Convention Against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries, arts. 2, 3(1),
Dec. 4, 1989, U.N. GAOR, 72d plen. mtg., U.N. Doc A/Res/44/34 (1989) [hereinafter UN
Mercenaries Convention]; see also Convention of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) for the
Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa art. 1(2), O.A.U. Doc. CM/817 (XXIX) Annex II Rev. 3
(1977) [hereinafter OAU Mercenaries Convention] (defining the crime of “mercenarism”).

I made probably a little over $30,000 tax free, civilian contractors made a $100K+ the TCN made about $5,000 and some change. Whether the use of the term came from an earlier effort the point of that is the an obvious & deliberate effort to "distance themselves" from accountable & responsibility

A UN convention that went into effect in 2001 criminalizes anyone who “recruits, uses, finances or
trains” mercenaries as well as any mercenaries who participate in combat. UN International
Convention Against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries, arts. 2, 3(1),
Dec. 4, 1989, U.N. GAOR, 72d plen. mtg., U.N. Doc A/Res/44/34 (1989) [hereinafter UN
Mercenaries Convention]; see also Convention of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) for the
Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa art. 1(2), O.A.U. Doc. CM/817 (XXIX) Annex II Rev. 3
(1977) [hereinafter OAU Mercenaries Convention] (defining the crime of “mercenarism”).

Check out the foot notes in addition to the article

199. TCNs potentially fall outside the definition of migrant workers under international human rights
law as well, as the relevant UN convention excludes “[p]ersons sent or employed by . . . a State
outside its territory to perform official functions, whose admission and status are regulated by
general international law or by specific international agreements or conventions.” International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their
Families, art. 3(a), Dec. 18, 1990, 30 I.L.M. 1517 (entered into force July 1, 2003).
200. In international armed conflicts, civilians accompanying the armed forces are entitled to prisoner of
war status, including “supply contractors, members of labour units or of services responsible for the
welfare of the armed forces.” Geneva Convention (III) Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of
War, art. 4(a)(4), Aug. 12, 1949, 6 U.S.T. 3316, T.I.A.S. No. 3364.
In noninternational armed conflicts—the status of most U.S. military operations involving
TCNs—civilians are targetable “for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.” Additional
Protocol I, supra note 185, art. 51(3). There has been intense debate over the scope of this
provision. The United States and its supporters have generally pushed for a broad interpretation of
“direct participation in hostilities” in order to maximize its discretion to treat individuals as military
targets in the Global War on Terror. This same logic, however, could potentially render targetable
a broader spectrum of contract workers, far beyond those who carry arms.

The sections I posted were from Part III - (Neither Soldiers no Mercernaries) US Migrant Workers & US power -- which looks into that what I can say is most people have the impression the US military does "most of the work" the TCNs do that, the US contractors do most of the task. FOB security, all of that they were tasked with that. All civilians, the case of BIAP they were African guards -- TCNs. The entire thing was law, why they use it, and where it started. I was in Afghanistan so Afghan nationals rivaled the TCN numbers there but it was clear everywhere -- the Pentagon sent world records for largest civilian workforce in Iraq.

II. FROM WORKERS TO VICTIMS: MILITARY MIGRANT LABOR
AND U.S. LAW
The post-2001 U.S. military fights ground wars using a labor force that is in
significant part offshored to foreign nationals, including workers imported from
third countries. Yet the United States continues to lack any coherent legal regime
for regulating the treatment of its migrant military workforce. This Part outlines
the predicament of TCN workers under U.S. law: Excluded from most labor
protection provisions, they are treated primarily as potential victims of human
trafficking. The trafficking framework, however, is not an adequate substitute for
labor law and in this case leaves the core employer-employee relationship effectively
beyond the review of U.S. courts.
A. Shutting Foreign Military Workers Out of U.S. Courts
The applicability of U.S. law to military bases overseas has long been a matter
of intense debate, especially in the ongoing disputes over the detention center
at Guantánamo Bay. Military commanders and contractor firms are the primary
entities exercising authority over military workers,67 but they do so in a situation
of significant jurisdictional uncertainty, since neither U.S. nor local laws apply in
their entirety. The debate over the applicability of U.S. law to overseas bases has
in significant part been informed by a near-exclusive focus on constitutional
rights and tort remedies.68 Overseas military bases are spaces saturated with other
67. Contractor personnel are generally required to obey directives from the Combatant Commander.
See 48 C.F.R. § 252.225-7040(d)(1)(iv) (2013). They can only be terminated, however, upon the
order of the Contracting Officer, who may be in a separate chain of command. See id. § 252.225-
7040(h)(1) (2013).
68. Tort actions by U.S. service members against military contractors have raised vexing questions
under the
<snip>

U.S. law applies to military contractors overseas only in limited instances,
thanks in significant part to the presumption against extraterritorial applicability.
70 Legislative enactments in recent years have extended criminal jurisdiction
over contractors in both military71 and civilian72 courts, regardless of nationality.
But many labor laws still do not apply extraterritorially, including to overseas bases.
These include the Service Contract Act, which establishes minimum wage
for government contractor employees;73 the Occupational Health and Safety
Act;74 the Fair Labor Standards Act;75 and the National Labor Relations Act.76
One category of labor law that does tend to apply extraterritorially is nondiscrimination
law, but only to U.S. citizens working for U.S. firms or companies controlled
by them. This includes Title VII of the Civil Rights Act,77 the Age Dis-
Discrimination in Employment Act,78 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.79

----

The presumption against extraterritorial applicability is the key term there stemming from a Supreme Court case involving Saudi Arabia of all countries

EEOC v. Arabian American Oil Co.
499 U.S. 244 (1991)
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v.

Arabian American Oil Company

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/499/244/case.html

Same issue then was the same issue at the World Cup as it is today, whatever is going on now, they are turn hours ahead of us so almost 11pm there just saying it is the status quo over there.

 

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)
8. what a shameful decision that was, and you know broadcasters from the WC
Mon May 18, 2015, 01:33 PM
May 2015

will be hassled and intimidated.

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