PROTECTION
The government demonstrated some progress to identify victims and improve protection services, but authorities continued to punish victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being subjected to human trafficking. From April to December 2014, the government identified and referred to protection services 57 trafficking victims, 20 of whom were victims of forced labor, two of begging, and 35 of sexual exploitation; this demonstrated an increase from the previous reporting period when the government identified 36 victims from January to December 2013. In July 2014, the government distributed victim identification criteria and reportedly provided training on implementation of the criteria to police and Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) officials. However, the government did not systematically utilize these measures to proactively identify victims among vulnerable populations. Thus, government officials continued to arrest, detain, deport, and sometimes prosecute trafficking victims, particularly illegal foreign workers and domestic workers who fled their employers. In 2014, the government arrested more than 8,000 beggars—of which 70 percent were foreign—and failed to identify any victims among this group. Women arrested for prostitution offenses—some of whom may be unidentified victims of trafficking—faced prosecution and, if convicted, imprisonment or corporal punishment; however, in practice, foreigners were deported, sometimes after being held in detention. In a sign of progress, in November 2014, the government announced workers who fled their employers would not be jailed or forced to return to their employers to obtain an exit visa, provided the workers cooperated with their respective embassies within a 72-hour period and had no criminal charges or outstanding fines against them.Though labor-sending country diplomats reported a substantial number of workers benefited from this policy, it is unknown if any trafficking victims were identified or referred to protection services through the policy.
The government continued to operate shelters for children, as well as 15 welfare centers for female domestic workers. These facilities provided shelter and psycho-social, health, and educational services to trafficking victims, though it was unclear

if any identified victims were referred to these facilities. The government improved services in the welfare center in Riyadh in 2014; for example, unlike in previous reporting periods, the government reported male shelter staff were not allowed in the residents’ living quarters, and labor source-country diplomatic officials were given regular access to their nationals residing in the center. The shelter operated as a one-stop shop, providing residents with legal assistance, immigration and passport services, translation, and rehabilitative care. It was equipped with seven female social workers, as well as trained psychologists and other medical professionals.The government did not provide specialized shelters for victims of sex trafficking or male trafficking victims. Due to a lack of available and adequate protection services for all trafficking victims, some victims in smaller cities were kept in jails until their cases were resolved. Many victims continued to seek refuge at their embassies; source country diplomatic missions continued to report complaints by their citizens of unpaid wages, physical or sexual abuse, and poor working conditions.
In November 2014, the Council of Ministers approved a child protection law to protect those under age 18 years from various crimes, including exploitation of children in criminal or sexual acts, which may include trafficking crimes.The government reportedly encouraged victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking offenders, yet few victims successfully pursued criminal cases against abusive employers due to lengthy delays in the immigration and justice system. Trafficking victims were reportedly given the option to remain in the country—either in protective custody or working for a new employer—during judicial proceedings, or they could request an immediate exit visa; these benefits were not linked to the successful outcome of a prosecution of their trafficker.

PREVENTION
The government made some progress in preventing trafficking. Government officials, as well as high-level religious leaders, demonstrated increased political will to combat trafficking and publicly acknowledged and condemned the problem of trafficking—specifically forced labor—in the country. The government allocated an increased amount of resources for the inter-agency anti-trafficking working group, which continued to actively coordinate efforts among ministries. For another year, the government updated its national anti-trafficking action plan; as part of this plan, the government identified areas of cooperation with two international organizations to strengthen anti-trafficking efforts.Throughout 2014, the government coordinated with five labor-sending country representatives to provide information on workers’ rights at airports in the sending countries. In June 2014, the government completed a domestic worker labor agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka, which aimed to protect workers’ wages and contracts. In May 2014, the MOL announced private employers who do not pay their domestic workers would be subjected to financial penalties.The government continued implementation of the Wage Protection System (WPS), which required employers to pay foreign workers through bank transfers, thereby allowing the MOL to ensure workers were paid appropriately. The MOL suspended 82 companies that did not adhere to the WPS. In October 2014, the government formally joined the International Association of Labor Inspection and conducted extensive labor inspections of recruitment agencies throughout the reporting period. The MOL employed nearly 1,000 labor inspectors and reported more than 62,000 labor violations and 9,500 cases in which foreign migrants were working for

employers without legal sponsorship.The MOL imposed penalties on 2,200 cases where companies violated the government’s mid- day work ban during the summer months. Government-controlled media implemented awareness campaigns addressing trafficking, while the MOL continued to distribute a guidebook to all migrant workers entering the country in some source country languages, which contained a telephone number for workers to report abuse. The government continued to improve an online portal providing domestic workers and employers with information about their legal rights.The police maintained a 24-hour anti-trafficking hotline with operators who spoke Arabic and English, and during 2014, the MOL established a hotline to receive labor dispute complaints with operators that spoke a variety of migrant worker languages; it was unclear if any trafficking victims were identified through these hotlines.The government took actions to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts and forced labor, but it did not report efforts to address child sex tourism by Saudi nationals abroad through any law enforcement efforts. Saudi law does not have extraterritorial coverage to prosecute Saudi nationals who commit sex tourism crimes outside of Saudi Arabia. The government provided anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.