International contractors have brought more than 1,000 foreign workers to Baghdad's international airport without proper legal labour protection, the United Nations office in Iraq (UNAMI) said Thursday.
The workers are stranded in the airport, prompting charges of human trafficking, UNAMI said.
"UNAMI takes the allegations of human trafficking by contractors in Iraq very seriously and is concerned about their predicament," said Stefan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Iraq, dpa reported.
De Mistura said the UN was aware of other cases of human trafficking, which have been brought before Iraqi courts to see whether international labour law standards have been breached.
He said the UN has begun its own evaluation of the situation at the Baghdad airport with the assistance of the International Organization for Migration and other groups with the aim of helping the workers.