Dubai Sex Workers In Need Of NGOs Says Expert

By Meagan Wiseley - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Woodrow Wilson Fellow Scholar and expert on Middle-Eastern studies Pardis Mahdavi spoke today about her findings on her ethnographic research on migrant workers and sex workers in the United Arab Emirates. She believes the creation of civil society organizations, or NGOs, aimed to support trafficked workers will end the abuse that is currently afflicting these men and women.

“My recommendation would be to actually strengthen civil society. There are a series of informal groups that are working on the ground to address the needs to migrant workers and sex workers,” said Mahdavi.

The 2009 annual Trafficking In Persons Report, or TIP, was released and placed the United Arab Emirates on the Tier 2 Watch list. The report defines nations on this list as having "governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.”

Mahdavi said that some of the recommendations made in the report are not designed to help trafficked people in the Persian Gulf. The report recommends a tightening of borders and an increase in police forces.

“Tightening borders typically actually only makes people more likely to end up in the informal economy, or more reliant on smugglers...they are more likely to rely on these shady middle men who put them in these cycles of violence,” she added.

Mahdavi emphasized the importance of accountability and transparency within these civil society organizations. She said if these NGOs are funded by the government and forced to comply with a series of standards in order to protect trafficked workers, abuses and more trafficking will be easily recognized and put to an end.

“What we need is transparency and accountability. These groups need to be accountable to one another,” she added.

The Gulf now the economic center of the Middle East

The Center for Strategic and International Studies held a discussion on the "Making Sense of Gulf Economic Trends."

The Gulf has now become the epicenter of the Middle East, anything that happens in the Gulf effects the entire region, said Mohsin Kahn, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund. He pointed out that other countries in the Middle East and the world invest heavily in the countries in the Gulf, and that these countries have 40 percent of the world's oil reserves and a combined GDP of over $1 trillion.

Countries in the Gulf face many challenges and problems, said Khan; they are facing high inflation rates, they face dilemmas in how to manage oil revenues, they have to deal with the current financial crisis and they are trying to create a monetary union in the area.

These countries need to invest in their infrastructure in order to develop their economies, said Khan. He pointed out that since their main source of income, oil, is a limited resource, they also have to save some of their money to ensure the well-being of future generations.

A high amount of government spending on infrastructures leads to high rates of inflation, currently the average rate of inflation in the Gulf countries is around 11.5 percent, said Khan. Fluctuating oil prices also have an effect on how governments choose to spend their budgets - in 2005 oil was $50 a barrel, earlier this year it ran up to $147 a barrel, and currently it is just below $60 a barrel.

Khan concluded that improving the infrastructure should be one of the top priorities for Gulf countries, because when the world economy starts to pick up and the Middle East doesn't have the capacity to supply enough oil, "$147 a barrel will be cheap."