The Guardian: Horrific Migrant Worker Exploitation in the UAE
The British newspaper The Guardian shed light on the dire conditions and exploitation faced by migrant workers in the UAE, revealing a system akin to human enslavement.
The newspaper said in an extensive investigation that the sponsorship system, which is seen as dangerous and abusive, not only ignores the rights of migrant workers but also relies on exploitation.
The newspaper reported interviewing 50 women employed as domestic workers in the Emirates and other Gulf nations. Their accounts unveil a segment of society enduring appalling conditions enabled by the state’s employment system.
Domestic workers, who are generally excluded from labor protection laws because they work in private homes, are highly dependent on their employers.
According to a 2014 United Nations report, migrant women in the Emirates are subjected to working conditions tantamount to forced labor.
All of the women interviewed worked seven days a week and had their passports confiscated by their employers. Many of them reported being subjected to violence and sexual assault. Most of them had to pay recruitment fees to get their jobs.
The Guardian presented an example of horrific violations in the Emirates through an interview with a migrant worker to the Emirates.
In 2016, Sofia, aged 35, fled from an abusive employer in Abu Dhabi, UAE.She spent several years living in the Emirates without documents, and during that period she gave birth to a girl named Aisha.
Sofia worked informally and slept with her child on the floor of a friend’s residence. Work was interrupted due to the Corona epidemic, and in 2021, she voluntarily presented herself to the police, seeking assistance to go back to her native Philippines. Subsequently, both she and her three-year-old daughter, Aisha, were handcuffed and transported to Al Awir prison in Dubai. Aisha, her child, was likewise detained.
“She was crying and banging her head on the floor,” Sophia says. “She hugged me and asked me why did they tie your hands?”
In prison, she was shocked to be separated from her child, except for three 30-minute visits a week. Sofia says she was not told how long they would be detained for absconding and overstaying a visa.
Aisha knew we were in prison. “She was calling the police to ask them to open the door,” Sophia says. “She kept asking for food… and cried a lot.”
Following three months of imprisonment, the mother and her young child were repatriated to the Philippines in 2021. Sofia expressed her ongoing sense of confinement, stating, “I feel as though I’m imprisoned still. Why has this happened to me? Oh God, have you abandoned me?”
Domestic workers find themselves victims of flagrant violations in the UAE at a time when the country’s domestic workers law, issued in 2022, still suffers from major gaps in protection.
Migrant Rights, an organization specialized in defending the rights of migrant workers in the Gulf, confirmed that the rights of migrant domestic workers in the Emirates are still severely neglected, even though their work constitutes the backbone of many families.
The organization stated that domestic workers in the UAE, like other Gulf countries, play a vital role in managing family affairs by providing multiple services, from caring for children and the elderly to cleaning and cooking.
None of the Gulf countries incorporate domestic workers within the scope of their labor regulations, with only four countries implementing specific legislation for this group, excluding the UAE.
According to the organization, these laws are significantly weak in both the provisions they cover and implementation, as they lack implementation mechanisms such as labor inspection or inclusion in the wage protection system to monitor contract violations.
The working hours of domestic workers in the region already exceed the working hours in the private sector, which are usually set at 8 hours a day.
In contrast, the maximum working hours for domestic workers was set at 12 hours per day in the UAE and Kuwait, and 10 hours in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Laws in Bahrain and Oman do not stipulate a maximum working hours.
The domestic worker law introduced in the UAE in 2022 exhibits notable deficiencies in safeguarding rights and grants employers considerable authority. During the same year, Dubai Police detained 948 domestic workers during Ramadan on charges of “escaping.”
Furthermore, domestic workers in the Emirates endure grave infringements, rendering their situation akin to slavery and human trafficking, exacerbated by the government’s failure to institute adequate legal safeguards for their protection.
Domestic workers in the UAE continue to be compelled to work incessantly, bearing a heavier workload than usual.
The exploitation within households was exacerbated by the adverse impact of the pandemic on the job market. With bans on new recruitment operations and prolonged closures of employment agencies, the black market for domestic workers experienced a resurgence.
Domestic workers differ from other foreign workers because they are excluded from the private sector labor law and are covered by a weaker law, the Domestic Workers Law.
Most of the domestic workers in the UAE are women employed in roles such as domestic help, childcare, and cooking. They are required by law to live in their employer’s residence.
