Saudi Arabia - United States Department of State https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/saudi-ar... The Government of Saudi Arabia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity; therefore Saudi Arabia was upgraded to Tier 2. These efforts included reporting more investigations, prosecutions, and convictions overall, particularly for forced labor; implementing its national referral mechanism (NRM); and providing robust training on the mechanism, identification, and referral procedures across all government agencies. The government also reported disaggregated victim identification and referral data for the first time, provided greater access to interpretation and legal services for victims, and coordinated with NGOs for the first time to provide protection services to victims. The government also held its largest awareness campaign and utilized existing mechanisms to refer labor violations that exhibited trafficking indicators for criminal investigation and prosecution. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. It continued to fine, jail, and/or deport migrant workers for prostitution or immigration violations, many of whom may have been unidentified trafficking victims. In addition, officials regularly misclassified potential trafficking crimes as administrative labor law violations or failed to refer such cases for criminal investigation. While the sponsorship system remained in place during the reporting period, in March 2021, the government began to implement labor reforms, allowing all expatriate workers covered under the Labor Law—with the exclusion of domestic workers—to obtain an exit and re-entry visa, obtain final exit visas, or change employers without an employer’s permission at the conclusion of their contract or after one year. These reforms may remove some aspects of employers’ unilateral control over the covered workers that could be used to create conditions of forced labor. Continue to investigate as potential trafficking crimes (not just as administrative issues) indicators of trafficking such as passport retention, withholding of wages, labor violations, and complaints of abuse. • Undertake serious efforts to prevent penalization of trafficking victims by proactively screening for trafficking among those arrested for immigration violations, prostitution, or those who flee abusive employers and face countercharges and deportation. • Ensure border guards and police are adequately trained to proactively identify potential victims and disseminate new screening protocols widely across the Kingdom. • Regularly use and train officials on the national referral mechanism to ensure victims among vulnerable populations, including domestic workers, illegal foreign workers, deportees, and persons in commercial sex, receive proper care and are not wrongfully penalized. • Expand implementation of electronic contracts so that workers can utilize the new labor reforms and include domestic workers in these 1 of 13 7/14/2021, 10:33 AM Saudi Arabia - United States Department of State https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/saudi-ar... reforms. • Amend the anti-trafficking law to remove sentencing provisions that allow fines in lieu of imprisonment for sex trafficking offenses. • Continue to increase efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers, and sentence convicted traffickers to significant prison terms under the anti-trafficking law. • Pursue criminal investigations against all officials allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes. • Expand usage of the specialized Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) sub-units to detect potential trafficking cases across the country. • Institute regular trainings for government officials on identifying cases of both labor and sex trafficking and differentiating between forced labor and labor-related crimes. The government increased law enforcement efforts. The 2009 anti-trafficking law criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed punishments of up to 15 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to 1 million Saudi Arabian riyal (SAR) ($266,670), or both; penalties increased under aggravating circumstances, including trafficking committed by an organized criminal group or against a woman, child, or person with disabilities. These penalties were sufficiently stringent; however, by allowing for a fine in lieu of imprisonment, the penalties for sex trafficking were not commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes such as kidnapping, false imprisonment, or sexual abuse. The Council of Ministers’ Decision 166 prohibited withholding workers’ passports as a lesser criminal offense, punishable by fines. During the reporting period, the government established a committee advised by an international organization and composed of the Ministry of Interior (MOI), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the PPO, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD), and the Saudi Human Rights Commission (HRC) to consider amendments to the 2009 anti- trafficking law. The government did not draft an amendment during the reporting period. As in the previous reporting period, officials disaggregated and shared law enforcement data by the type of trafficking and comprehensive case specifics, including reporting the number of traffickers sentenced and the penalties prescribed. While several government entities disclosed their respective law enforcement datasets, the disparate, contradictory totals suggested limited interagency coordination. During the reporting period, the MOI reported investigating 610 potential trafficking cases, the PPO reported investigating 106 cases, and the MOJ reported investigating 59 potential trafficking cases, totaling 775 cases involving 1,111 alleged traffickers. Of these 775 cases, 570 were for forced labor, four for child sex trafficking, and 35 for sex trafficking, with the remainder for forced begging and “slavery-like practices.” During the previous reporting period, the government investigated 320 potential trafficking cases. During the current reporting period, the government reported prosecuting 127 individuals in 52 cases; it did not report how many cases and individuals it prosecuted in the previous reporting period. Of the 52 cases prosecuted, the government reported convicting 62 defendants under the anti-trafficking law, compared with convicting 46 defendants in the previous year. The government reported it acquitted an unknown number of traffickers in 22 cases, suspended proceedings for an unknown number of traffickers in one case, and three cases of forced labor involving an unknown number of traffickers remained in the prosecution stage at the close of the reporting period. Of these 62 defendants convicted, 38 were for forced labor, 11 for sex trafficking, six for forced begging, and seven for “slavery-like practices.” The government reported it 2 of 13 7/14/2021, 10:33 AM Saudi Arabia - United States Department of State https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/saudi-ar... sentenced all convicted traffickers to terms of imprisonment ranging from three months to six years and two months (with the majority receiving one year or more), plus fines, travel bans, and confiscation of personal assets used to facilitate each crime. In another reported case, courts sentenced a Saudi male to one year imprisonment and a 10,000 SAR fine ($2,670) for recruiting several domestic workers from their employer’s homes and forcing them to work in domestic servitude. Additionally, the courts sentenced two Indian males to three years’ imprisonment each for forcing a woman into commercial sex through threats of physical abuse. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. The government reported launching several initiatives during the reporting period to continue to investigate, prosecute, and convict criminal cases, including cases of trafficking, through digital platforms. The government launched electronic litigation services through its Najiz platform. The MOJ reported receiving 7,000 written pleadings, held more than 6,000 virtual hearings, and issued more than 2,200 judgments. It also launched tele-trials, allowing trials to be held remotely in five courts and five prisons across the Kingdom; it held 1,443 remote trials during the reporting period, including for an unknown number of trafficking cases. Government officials in many instances continued to misclassify trafficking cases as administrative immigration or labor law violations without routinely undertaking criminal investigations or prosecutions against traffickers. The PPO maintained 107 trafficking-specific, operational investigative sub-units within PPO branch offices (two in Riyadh and the remainder in the capital of each province) to identify potential trafficking cases among existing criminal cases. The PPO continued to have a panel of five human trafficking experts who informed anti-trafficking policy and served as resources at the PPO headquarters and for