Women are among the most vulnerable migrant workers; they are at the greatest risk of experiencing forced labor and/or sex trafficking, with Bahrain being a destination country for sex trafficking
Domestic workers may be victims of sex trafficking after being deceived into coming to Bahrain with regular working visas and later being forced into prostitution. Escaped workers are also picked up by a sex trafficking ring after feeing an abusive employer. In 2010, authorities discovered two underage Bangladeshi girls with forged passports at an airport in Bahrain.
The young women were part of a larger trafficking ring that consisted of Tai and Bahraini nationals who deceived women into believing they would work as domestic servants but then forced them into prostitution in entertainment venues.
Victims of sex trafficking are primarily from South and Southeast Asia (especially the Philippines and Thailand), but many come from Morocco, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Russia, Ukraine, China, Vietnam, and Eastern Europe.
Women and girls who are trafficked for sex are often subjected to similar exploitation as domestic workers: their passports and visas are confiscated, thus eliminating their freedom of mobility. Additionally, these women often endure physical, sexual, and psychological abuse by their traffickers, and are sometimes moved from country to country.
This makes it particularly difficult for victims to seek help, as well as for perpetrators to be prosecuted in Bahrain.
The Government of Bahrain does not have a legal mechanism to identify potential victims of trafficking. Instead, victims are usually labeled illegal migrants or prostitutes and then detained and deported.
One figure states that 7,346 undocumented migrants were deported from Bahrain in 2013, and in a period of three months, 2,114 more were arrested. Victims of human trafficking likely comprised a substantial portion of these persons