Human trafficking cases in the Kingdom are very limited to individual cases that will be taken for scrutiny like anywhere in the world and they cannot be classified as a “phenomenon,” said Prince Turki Bin Muhammad Bin Saud Al-Kabeer, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for International Relations, here Monday. Human trafficking simply goes against the grain of the Islamic values of the Saudi society, he said. The Prince's comment came in his speech “The Kingdom's Efforts in Combating Human Trafficking” during the activities of the final day of the third scholarly symposium on human trafficking organized by the Ministry of Justice and the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS) at the university campus here. The Kingdom has joined seven international anti-human trafficking treaties, becoming more of an ardent fighter against human trafficking, he said. The Saudi legislations and society, guided by teachings of Islamic Shariah, have been geared towards collapsing this dangerous trend through organized awareness campaigns and international conferences, he said. With the increasing number of foreign workers in the Kingdom, the public needs to be more aware of their rights and obligations, he said. Muhamamd Mattar, a UN advisor for combating human trafficking and representative of Johns Hopkins University, said the Kingdom has been doing its utmost to fight this global concern and it is on the way to issue its own anti-human trafficking law drawn from the teachings of Islamic Shariah and the international laws that prohibit the exploitation of a fellow human being. The new Saudi anti-human trafficking law will also provide protection and help for victims of human trafficking and take measures to curb the rise of individual cases before they turn into a “phenomenon,” he said.
