In 2013, the ILO (International Labor Organization) reported that the Middle East was the main destination for victims of trafficking, as it calculated that there were approximately 600,000 victims of forced labor in this country. the region to date (13). This seemingly widespread problem of human trafficking in the Middle East has been the subject of significant media coverage and global debate. There are three major elements at the center of this debate: questions related to interpretations of the definition of human trafficking, widely accepted by the United Nations Palermo Protocol, concerns regarding representations of victims of human trafficking human rights and questions regarding the most effective strategies in this area. prevent certain types of traffic. While much media coverage, research, and policy tends to focus on sex trafficking of women and girls in the Middle East, Mahdavi and Sargent argue in "Questioning the Discursive Construction of Trafficking and Forced Labor in the United Arab Emirates” that this has overshadowed “the instances of forced labor experienced by migrant workers outside of the sex industry” (9). Thus diverting attention from necessary reform of the kafala system, which may have the capacity to address the issue of human trafficking and migrant rights on a broader scale (13). While the 2013 ILO report, “Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East” represents a step forward in the discourse on human trafficking in the region (since its research focuses on those who work outside of the sex industry), Mahdavi and Sargent highlight the need for a deeper understanding of the many forms that human trafficking can take as well as the need to give victims the opportunity to "contribute with their own voice …” Middle East and beyond gender, racial and class biases that may affect their perceptions of human trafficking and the people it inherently affects. Migrant workers remain the most vulnerable to trafficking in the region and therefore a reform of the kafala system as well as policies aimed specifically at protecting migrant workers appear to be among the crucial elements to prevent forced labor and poor conditions of workers in the region. .Works citedHaroff-Tavel, Hélène and Alix Nasri. Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East. Beirut: International Labor Organization, 2013. Web.Mahdavi, Pardis and Christine Sargent. “Challenging the discursive construction of trafficking and forced labor in the UAE.” Journal of Middle Eastern Women's Studies 7.3 (2011): 6,35,130-131. ProQuest. Web.