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There are typically two different forms of recruitment for forced labor, voluntary recruitment and unfree recruitment. Unfree recruitment is usually split between three categories including deception about the nature of the work, deception about the working and living conditions, and deception about the legality and the existence of the job.

This article is from the point of view of an anthropologist who was brought in as a cultural consultant to mediate an issue of "watsa" for a corporation in the Middle East. The company prides itself on its lack of internal corruption, and in turn hired a man named Girgis who grew up in the Middle East but lived and received an education in the US. In Girgis's first year he hired one of his cousins, which the supervisors saw as corrupt hiring practice. The author, and hired consultant, explained to the company supervisors that watsa was an "investment and return" framework in Arab culture, and that there are economic parallels between Arab families and businesses, families existing as economic units. Girgis conveyed that anywhere else in the world he would run the office by the book, but in the Arab world he must also adhere to social norms. The result of watsa through Arab eyes leads to greater loyalty, and less likelihood for deception and theft. The article basically introduces the idea that while in the Western world this may be seen as corruption, it is an embedded part of culture in the Middle East. 

The amount of human trafficking victims in the Middle East is 68%. Of the amount of people who are victims, one in four of them is a child. A reason for people falling victim to human trafficking is extreme poverty, entrenched inequality, and a lack of education and opportunity.