Slavery in Oman
[2] A second route of slave trade existed, with people from both Africa and East Asia, who were smuggled to Jeddah in the Arabian Peninsula in connection to the Muslim pilgrimage, Hajj, to Mecca and Medina.
Anyone found involved in this traffic would be liable to detention and condemnation by all [British] Naval Officers and Agents, and all slaves entering the Sultan's dominions should be freed.
In 1927 a trial reveal a slave trade organization in which Indian children of both sexes were trafficked to Oman and Dubai via Persia and Gwadar.
[5] In the 1940s, a third slave trade route was noted, in which Sindhi from Balochistan were shipped across the Persian Gulf, many of whom had sold themselves or their children to escape poverty.
[11] Non-African female slaves were sold in the Persian Gulf where they were bought for marriage; these were fewer and often Armenian, Georgian, or from Baluchistan and India.
[13] It was common for Arab men to use the sexual services of enslaved African women, but a male African slave who had sexual relations with a local "pure blood" Arab woman would be executed to preserve tribal honor and social status, regardless if the couple had married or not.
[16] Sultan Said bin Taimur reportedly owned around 500 slaves, descendants of enslaved people trafficked from Africa, which were "kept tightly isolated from the rest of the population, and banned from marrying or learning to read or write without his permission".
[2] A correspondent who visited Salala after Sultan Said's removal in 1970 reported: The British Empire, having signed the 1926 Slavery Convention as a member of the League of Nations, was obliged to investigate, report and fight slavery and slave trade in all land under direct or indirect control of the British Empire.
As was the case with the rest of the Gulf states, the British considered their control over the region insufficient to do something about the slavery and the slave trade.
[18] In 1929 the Sultan of Muscat, Taimur bin Feisal, expressed himself willing to abolish slavery, but that it would be impossible to enforce such a ban, since he claimed not to have actual control over the tribes in the Omani hinterland and Bathina.
After World War II, there was growing international pressure from the United Nations to end the slave trade.
The British were criticised by the UN for supporting the Sultan of Oman, who was known to be a slave owner, but they did not wish to stop doing that for economic reasons.
[30][31][32][33][34] According to Oman's 2003 Labour Law, an employer needs a permit issued by the Ministry of Manpower in order to import foreign workers.
[36][37] The 2003 Law also sets conditions for the labor contract, as well as the rights and obligations of both employers and migrant workers, including the provision of medical facilities, suitable means of transport, and a minimum wage by the Council of Ministers.
[42] In 2011, Oman reportedly informed the United Nations Human Rights Council that alternatives to the kafala system were being considered.
