US State Department Report: Trafficking of Iranian Women to Dubai and Sulaymaniyah
The US State Department’s annual report on human trafficking in 2016 has been released. According to this report, the number of Iranian women and girls being trafficked to Dubai and Kurdistan region of Iraq for forced sexual services has increased.
The US State Department released its annual report on human trafficking. In this report, countries are divided into three groups: the first group consists of countries that have acknowledged the human trafficking problem and are making efforts to eliminate it. The second group includes countries that have recognized the problem but are not making efforts to address it, and the third group comprises countries that have not acknowledged the problem at all and are making no efforts to combat it.
At the beginning of this report, in the Iran section, it states: “The Iranian government has failed to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking and has not made effective efforts in this regard, therefore it is placed in group three.”
However, it is further clarified that despite the lack of effective efforts by the Iranian government to combat human trafficking, the government has taken steps to address this issue. This includes the establishment of centers to help human trafficking victims.
Beyond this, the Iranian government has agreed to cooperate with some countries in the region to combat human trafficking, although during the previous reporting period, the Iranian government provided no information to this institution regarding its efforts to combat human trafficking.
Iran as a destination and source of sexual trafficking and forced labor
Based on reports received by international centers, Iran has been one of the transit hubs and one of the source and destination countries for sexual trafficking of men, women and children, as well as forced labor over the past five years.
Organized human trafficking networks traffic Iranian women, boys and girls to Afghanistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Europe for forced sexual services.
Some Iranian women who have traveled to these countries to provide financial assistance to their families are forced to provide sexual services and forced labor there.
Iranian girls aged 13 to 17 are targets of human trafficking networks and are taken out of Iran for sale. Younger girls are forced to do domestic work until the trafficker determines they are developed enough to provide sexual services.
In 2016, a report was presented indicating that the number of Iranian women being trafficked to Dubai for prostitution has increased significantly. Some of these women are victims of human trafficking. The city of Shiraz is the point of departure for these women and girls, some of whom are brought from Azerbaijan to Shiraz and then transferred to Dubai.
From 2009 to 2015, the transfer of girls from within Iran to one of the Persian Gulf littoral states for forced sexual services has also increased.
Some officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government are customers of brothels with Iranian women
According to this report, Iranian girls are forced to work in brothels in Iraqi Kurdistan, particularly in the city of Sulaymaniyah. Some of these girls are brought to Sulaymaniyah by Iranian trafficking networks.
In 2015, local media in Iraqi Kurdistan reported that some members of the Kurdish Regional Government are customers of these brothels.
In the cities of Tehran, Tabriz, and Astara, the number of teenage girls being used to provide sexual services has increased.
In this report, temporary marriage or “Sigheh” is also considered a form of prostitution, while this practice is legal in Iran. According to this report, the prevalence of these types of marriages, which last from one hour to one week, has also increased.
Source: DW
