Tanzania is preparing new rules to rein in rogue agents bent on recruiting its nationals to work in the Middle East.

The agents will now have to be registered in the country and must work with a local firm.

The director in charge of the Middle East Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Co-operation, Abdallah Kirima, said the rules and procedures seek to seal loopholes for abuse of human and migration rights of Tanzanian workers abroad.

“Recruitment agencies must register with the Tanzania Employment Services Agency (TaESA) and make sure processes to employ domestic workers adhere to procedures of our country with full involvement of our embassies abroad,” he said.

TaESA works under the Prime Minister’s Office and is mandated with the task of improving the quality of employment services.

Mr Kirima said that the emphasis on the Middle East is due to the fact that most reported cases of abuse occur in Oman, Bahrain, Quatar, Saudi Arabia, Dabai and the United Arab Emirates. He added that government would also introduce training schemes for Tanzanians seeking employment as domestic workers in foreign countries on basic rights and how to claim them in cases of abuse by employers.

According to the ministry director, over 5,600 Tanzanians work in Oman with 4,000 of them being domestic workers. The remaining Tanzanian migrants predominantly work as teachers, drivers and motor vehicle mechanics. UAE has employed a total of 9,000 Tanzanians as a whole.

Common forms of abuse include confiscating workers’ passports, withholding their wages and promising well-paying domestic worker jobs only to subject them to sex slavery upon arrival.

In some cases domestic workers have entered contracts that they couldn’t read or were given no contracts at all. Also, some employers assume control of virtually all aspects of a domestic worker’s life, including monitoring what she does, confiscating her phone and prohibiting her from using phones or the Internet, and preventing her from having a social life.

Incidents of physical abuse including beatings and rape are also common, according to the study, Slaving Away: Migrant Labour Exploitation and Human Trafficking in the Gulf, conducted by the Washington-based Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain.

“In some instances, employers have raped their live-in domestic workers, while other cases describe how strangers would take advantage of domestic workers’ isolation and rape them,” the study notes, adding “unfortunately, due to strict rules and laws in Qatar, female domestic workers are often criminalised for “illicit relations” when attempting to report instances of rape.”

Recently, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, East African Co-operation, Regional and International Co-operation, Mindi Kasiga told The EastAfrican that Tanzania was making efforts to rescue women aged between 18 and 24 who are stranded in the Far East and Middle East countries where they were taken with the promise of jobs, but upon arrival their passports were confiscated and they were forced to work as sex slaves.