Slavery in Jordan
is illegal, however, like many other countries, it suffers from issues relating to
human trafficking
. Historically, slavery in the territory later to become the modern state of Jordan, was significant during the
Ottoman Empire
period.
The area was one of the destinations of the
Red Sea slave trade
of enslaved Africans until the 20th century. Slavery was banned in the
Emirate of Transjordan
in 1929, but it was still reported to exist in practice in the 1940s. Many members of the
Afro-Jordan
minority are descendants of former slaves.
History
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Jordan was close to the
Red Sea slave trade
, which had been trafficking enslaved people from Eastern Africa across the Red Sea to Arabia since antiquity.
The sugar plantations in the Southern Jordan valley cultivated during the Ayybid (1187?1260) and Mamluk (1250?1517) era are known to have used slave labor, but it is unknown which ethnicity the slaves had or how they arrived to Jordan.
[1]
From 1500 onward, three slave routes for slaves to Jordan-Palestine are known: Somalis victims of the Red Sea slave trade bought with pilgrims on return from the
Hajj
; Abyssinians bought to Palestine-Jordan from Cyprus and Istanbul; and slaves purchased in the slave markets of Egypt.
[1]
In accordance with Islamic tradition, female slaves were used as domestic servants or concubines (sex slaves), and male slaves, in addition to hard labor, were also used as pages, bodyguards and poets to the Bedouin tribal leaders during the 19th- and 20th centuries.
[1]
Jordan belonged to the Ottoman Empire in 1517?1921. Slavery was a significant part of the
Ottoman Empire
's economy. During the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire officially conducted efforts to restrain the slave trade in the provinces of the Empire. Still, in practice, these efforts had no actual effect in Jordan.
[1]
Abolition
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In 1921, former
Ottoman Jordan
was transformed into the
Emirate of Transjordan
(1921?1946), which was a British protectorate. 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.
Slavery in Transjordan was legally abolished by the British in 1929.
[2]
[3]
The British ban against slavery was incorporated into the constitution, and after 1929, there were officially no slavery in Jordan.
[4]
In 1934 however, a report to the
Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery
of the
League of Nations
noted that slaves were still kept among the Bedouin shaykhs in Jordan and Palestine, and that slavery was maintained under the guise of clientage.
[5]
While formally banned on paper, slavery was reported to still exist in practice in Jordan as late as the 1940s.
[1]
Many members of the
Afro-Jordan
minority are descendants of former slaves.
Modern slavery in Jordan
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Jordan
is a source, destination, and transit country for adults and children subjected to
forced labor
and, to a lesser extent,
sex trafficking
. Women from
Southeast Asia
and
East Africa
voluntarily migrate to Jordan for employment among the estimated 50,000 foreign domestic workers in the country; some domestic workers are subjected to forced labor. Many of these workers cannot return to their home countries due to pending criminal charges against them or their inability to pay overstay penalties or plane fare home.
See also
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References
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