THE majority of employers who agree to release and transfer the sponsorship of their employees in exchange for monetary compensation, do not know that they are taking part in human trafficking. Once a foreign worker has completed his/her contractual duties, employers often take out advertisements in local newspapers offering to transfer the worker's sponsorship. Most of the citizens who do this have heard of the term “human trafficking,” yet are unaware that they are taking part in it and see no harm in recuperating the money they spent on administrative fees associated with the recruitment of workers. This ignorance can be attributed to two things — the absence of a law that protects the rights of foreign workers and a lack of awareness by the concerned authorities. In my opinion, authorities must do more to educate citizens and pass laws that protect workers from being trafficked. There is, however, a group of people who, despite knowing the exact meaning of human trafficking, practice it; they demand money in order to give up the services of their employees who have fulfilled the contractual duties they came to the Kingdom for. They are well aware of the fact that a sponsor does not have the right to demand any compensation for releasing a worker. Such people need to be dealt with immediately and harshly. What is apparent is the involvement of licensed recruitment offices in the buying and selling of services of domestic workers. In many cases, recruitment offices make more money by taking part in transfer of sponsorship transactions than they do from recruiting foreign labor. Will the new recruitment companies that are going to be formed put an end to human trafficking and the trade of human services? The answer depends on the reliability of the new companies and their intentions.
