1. Introduction

This report sheds light on the individual and collective experiences of Sierra Leonean women migrant domestic workers from their recruitment in Sierra Leone, through their work experience in Oman and, in some cases, their eventual repatriation back to Sierra Leone. In this report, you will hear the women recount their experiences in their own words, as well as an analysis of our overall findings. 

The report is based on the work from our project “Freedom for Our Sisters”, which started in October 2020 and focused on a community of 656 Sierra Leonean women, the vast majority of whom were trafficked into domestic servitude in Oman. We spent 22 months interviewing and surveying hundreds of women while also spending countless hours identifying victims of trafficking and exploitation, providing support, making referrals and analysing data. 

Our findings are based on research, engagement with governments and different government entities, monitoring of grievance, accountability systems and government responses, the assistance provided to victims of human trafficking or exploitation, one-on-one conversations with 390 women, and a verified survey of 469 women. 

Because of our extensive engagement with this community, we have uncovered a depth of issues faced by Sierra Leonean domestic workers in Oman that had not been previously reported on. Through this report, we hope to capture these important details and provide a thorough understanding of the interconnectedness of issues and how to prevent and/or remedy them. All the women referred to in this report are Sierra Leonean, although we have also provided support for women and men of other nationalities in Oman.

1.1 Domestic Workers in Oman 

According to the National Centre for Statistics & Information of Oman (2019), the Sultanate of Oman’s domestic work sector employs around 158,537 migrant women domestic workers, excluding those that are undocumented. Most come from the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Ethiopia. 

Because of structural systems and widespread unethical practices, migrant domestic workers are often victims of human rights abuses such as forced labour, wage theft, and physical abuse. The domestic work sector is not well regulated, and provisions of the kafala or sponsorship system – a set of laws governing migrant workers’ immigration and legal residence in the region – provide unbalanced power favouring the employer over the domestic worker. Grievance mechanisms are not accessible, not functional, or flawed in their response. Access to justice is beyond the reach of domestic workers, and holding accountable those responsible for wrongdoings is rarely seen. These situations leave domestic workers unprotected and highly vulnerable. Another hindrance to providing protection and support to domestic workers in Oman is that it is considered a country with repressed civic space, meaning that civil society is significantly constrained and therefore migrant workers have little to no support from civil society. 

1.2 Legal Framework

To understand the legal context, we considered the laws, decrees, or ministerial orders that cover the domestic work sector, ratification of different relevant international conventions and domestic violence legislation in Oman, and anti-human trafficking efforts in the country. 

Domestic work regulation and domestic workers’ protection

In Oman, the labour law does not cover domestic workers, excluding them from fundamental rights and resulting in a higher risk of exploitation. The only legal instruments regulating domestic work are 1) a three-page ministerial decree (Ministerial Order No. 189 of 2004 concerning the rules and conditions on the employment of domestic workers) stating the ‌rights and responsibilities of employers and domestic workers, 2) the standard domestic worker’s contract (2011) regulating the relationship between employer and domestic worker, and the working and living conditions of the latter, and 3) Ministerial Decision No. 1/2011, which regulates the agencies involved in the recruitment of domestic workers. 

Basic protections from which domestic workers are excluded from are minimum wage, maximum working hours, rest periods, overtime paid, annual leave, end of service benefits and health insurance. 

Anti-human trafficking legislation and efforts

In 2008, Oman adopted an Anti-Trafficking Law by a Royal Decree. The law prohibits all forms of trafficking and mentions punishments of 7 to 15 years of imprisonment and financial fines for those held accountable. However, conviction rates are low, and the tendency is to focus on sex trafficking rather than labour trafficking. For example, between 2019 and March 2022, there were no prosecutions for forced labour, including domestic servitude.

Oman also adopted a National Action Plan against Human Trafficking and established a National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking to apply the Law to Combat Human Trafficking. In 2017, the Council of Ministers authorised a Rapid Action Taskforce to combat human trafficking that went into effect in early 2021. In 2020, the Royal Oman Police, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established a dedicated counter-trafficking unit in persons to combat human trafficking and respond to relevant human trafficking reports.   

Data available on human trafficking and modern slavery

We found limited relevant information on human trafficking, modern slavery and forced labour from sources from the U.S. Department of State, the Global Organized Crime Index and the Modern Slavery Index. Data available on human trafficking in Oman remains limited, with the primary data source being the annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report by the U.S. Department of State. According to the 2022 TIP report, in the reporting period, Oman (Tier 2), did not identify any victims of forced labour. They did identify 16 people as victims of trafficking, 14 of whom were victims of sex trafficking and two victims of forced begging. In this reporting period, same as in the previous year “the government did not identify any foreign victims of forced labor, including domestic servitude” and “the government did not investigate, prosecute or, for the fourth consecutive year, convict any traffickers of forced labour of migrant workers, including domestic servitude”.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, “Criminal employment agencies and foreign actors are prevalent in the human trafficking trade. The human trafficking networks are seemingly diffused across the entire country and extend beyond Oman to connect with local agents in trafficking victims’ countries of origin. Low-level state-embedded actors in Oman’s criminal markets seem to be corrupt and complicit law enforcement officials, security personnel and airport officials who allow traffickers to move people into the country through legal access points.”

Regarding modern slavery, the Modern Slavery Index estimated an absolute number of 9,000 victims from a population of 4.2 million, with an estimated prevalence of 2.1 (2.1 victims per 1,000 people). The Arab States (GCC countries, Lebanon and Jordan) was rated as the second most vulnerable region for modern slavery, with government response as the main weakness. The government response is rated from highest A to lowest D. Oman is rated as CCC while Sierra Leone is rated B.

Other than these, there is no representative data on the prevalence of forced labour or human trafficking in Oman.

Country ratifications for international conventions and protocols

Oman ratified the ILO Forced Labour Convention C029 in 1998; ILO Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, C105 in 2005; ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, C182 in 2001; and the accession in 2005 to the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocol). 

Oman has not signed or ratified the Slavery Convention 1926; the ILO Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, P029; the UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery; or the ILO Convention 189, the Domestic Workers Convention. 

Programs to protect migrant workers

In 2010, Oman established an ILO Decent Work Country Program (DWCP) for government officials to receive technical assistance related to the protection of migrant workers. From our understanding, the programme ran from 2010 to 2016, then it was extended from 2018 to 2020. However, it is not clear to us whether the domestic work sector is being prioritised in this programme since, in its latest report, domestic workers are not mentioned. 

Domestic violence legislation

Regarding protecting women, including women domestic workers, from violence, Oman has no specific legislation on domestic violence to protect women from any form of violence nor any other mechanism for women to access protection and ensure prosecution. 

1.3 The COVID-19 Pandemic

Although this report is not focused on the effects of the pandemic on women domestic workers, it is important to mention the additional and exasperating issues this community faced because of it. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, human rights violations and the abuse of women domestic workers in Oman increased. 

The onset of the pandemic and subsequent closing of schools and requiring public and private sector workers to stay home forced a large number of families in Oman to stay at home. Through conversations with this group of women, women reported increased working hours as well as increased discrimination. Some women reported being told that they were virus carriers and to stay away. In one case, an employer called the police to keep a domestic worker away (see also Threats, abuse, harassment and violence). 

An increase in wage theft during the pandemic was indicated anecdotally from conversations with the women who reported that employers told them they could not pay their salary since they had lost their jobs or had their salaries reduced. 

The response of different entities in the context of the pandemic also shed light on systemic gaps. For instance, women domestic workers were detained in closed quarters without public health precautions. At some point, the Ministry of Labour began prohibiting unvaccinated individuals from entering its offices. This meant that those who needed the most support from the Ministry of Labour could not access it as most of the women from this group were unvaccinated. There are also reports of Ministry offices being completely closed to the public because of COVID infections among their staff. The vaccination efforts were prioritised first for medical staff and the elderly, followed by young Omani citizens, and in April 2021, vaccines were available for all other nationalities. 

As for repatriations, the COVID-19 pandemic brought extra regulations for travellers to Sierra Leone, and flights ‌often were cancelled. All travellers had to take a PCR test within 72 hours before travelling and pay 800,000 SLL (approximately US$70) online and in advance for a ‘Health Declaration’ and PCR test on arrival in Sierra Leone. This extra expense, although understandable given the circumstances, is an insurmountable barrier for victims of human trafficking. Furthermore, this community has limited knowledge of how to submit applications online and the women do not have credit cards available to make payments online.

Also, the periodic closing of borders/airports and the introduction of stricter measures from countries where the flights from Oman to Sierra Leone would stop over meant that flight options were limited and often led to more expensive flights. For example, Morocco, a popular transit point for flights to Freetown, closed to all international flights from November 27, 2021 to February 7, 2022. Besides these practical barriers to repatriation, we have also documented employers telling their workers that “the airport is closed”, when the airport was open as a reason not to purchase return tickets for workers who had completed their contracts, although employers are legally required to purchase these according to Omani law.  

1.4 Background: “Freedom for Our Sisters” Project 

The “Freedom for Our Sisters” project was created to address the needs of the group of Sierra Leonean women identified as victims of trafficking and forced labour and to promote systemic change to address and prevent human trafficking and exploitation. From October 2020 to the present, Do Bold has created an online community of 656 Sierra Leonean women domestic workers in Oman, talking to them to understand their experiences and share their stories, collecting first-hand, RT & NRT data to identify root causes, systemic gaps and widespread practices, and providing remedy (see Do Bold’s efforts to support victims of human trafficking and forced labour).