permit, but now we have to pay the fine because they say they’ve done all the work to get the real work permit. The company has all our passports. We can’t afford to leave. I went to a manager here and complained, and she said if you don’t like it here, you can go home. (HRW, 2009)
On November 7, 2006, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE prime minister, issued a decree ordering the labor minister to implement immediate reforms that addressed housing, transportation, a recruitment process for new labor inspectors, fast-track dispute resolution in federal labor courts, and immediate release from their employer sponsorships for workers who have been cheated on wages or not been paid for more than two months, if they so choose. The prime minister decreed that employers should be required to provide health insurance for low-skill workers. The reforms mandated that workers scheduled for return to their countries of origin be satisfactorily housed and fed while awaiting their departure. In 2007, following the 2006 decree that housing for workers be brought in line with international standards and conventions, the UAE minister of labor stated that the government had closed 100 Dubai compounds and labor camps where workers resided. The compounds housed hundreds to thousands of workers in shared rooms (HRW, 2009). Although these are positive steps, the 2006 decree appears to be mostly unenforced. Public health authorities in Dubai stated that 40 percent of the UAE’s 1,033 labor camps violated minimum health and fire safety standards. In 2008 a chickenpox outbreak in a labor camp was linked to unhygienic conditions, and 11 construction workers died in August 2008 when a 30-room residence housing 500 workers caught fire. Some of the workers had to jump out of windows because exits were blocked. In March 2009 the Ministry of Labor’s chief inspector said that in order to cut costs companies had cut workers’ meals from three to one a day and added as much as 40 percent to their labor camp population without adding space for accommodations (HRW, 2009).
Domestic workers (housekeepers, caretakers) are particularly marginalized because they are not recognized as members of the labor force and are thereby excluded from protection under UAE labor laws. Like many other forced-labor victims, they voluntarily accept jobs in the UAE and face the withholding of their passports, nonpayment of wages, and excessive work hours. In addition, domestic workers commonly face isolation, with minimal to no access to the outside world, which makes it difficult for them to escape and also makes them more vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse. Like foreign construction workers in the UAE, domestic workers are dependent upon their sponsoring employer, but it is their exclusion from protection that augments the sponsor-employer’s power and control (Caplin, 2009; HRW, 2010b). In addition to the abuses, domestic victims face poor nutrition. Eleven of 26 Filipina domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in the July 2006 report
Swept Under the Rug: Abuses Against Domestic Workers Around the World
stated that they were deprived of adequate nutrition. “I don’t want to die from starvation and too much work,” Rosa Alvarez told HRW. “Breakfast was water and bread, there was no lunch. They would say I can only eat bread. I lost five kilograms [11 pounds] in three months” (Sunderland, 2006).
Trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation is also an issue in the UAE. Women and children from Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan are trafficked to the UAE for this purpose. Some women accept positions as hotel employees or secretaries but then are forced into domestic servitude or prostitution (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010; UNODC, 2009). It is challenging
On November 7, 2006, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE prime minister, issued a decree ordering the labor minister to implement immediate reforms that addressed housing, transportation, a recruitment process for new labor inspectors, fast-track dispute resolution in federal labor courts, and immediate release from their employer sponsorships for workers who have been cheated on wages or not been paid for more than two months, if they so choose. The prime minister decreed that employers should be required to provide health insurance for low-skill workers. The reforms mandated that workers scheduled for return to their countries of origin be satisfactorily housed and fed while awaiting their departure. In 2007, following the 2006 decree that housing for workers be brought in line with international standards and conventions, the UAE minister of labor stated that the government had closed 100 Dubai compounds and labor camps where workers resided. The compounds housed hundreds to thousands of workers in shared rooms (HRW, 2009). Although these are positive steps, the 2006 decree appears to be mostly unenforced. Public health authorities in Dubai stated that 40 percent of the UAE’s 1,033 labor camps violated minimum health and fire safety standards. In 2008 a chickenpox outbreak in a labor camp was linked to unhygienic conditions, and 11 construction workers died in August 2008 when a 30-room residence housing 500 workers caught fire. Some of the workers had to jump out of windows because exits were blocked. In March 2009 the Ministry of Labor’s chief inspector said that in order to cut costs companies had cut workers’ meals from three to one a day and added as much as 40 percent to their labor camp population without adding space for accommodations (HRW, 2009).
Domestic workers (housekeepers, caretakers) are particularly marginalized because they are not recognized as members of the labor force and are thereby excluded from protection under UAE labor laws. Like many other forced-labor victims, they voluntarily accept jobs in the UAE and face the withholding of their passports, nonpayment of wages, and excessive work hours. In addition, domestic workers commonly face isolation, with minimal to no access to the outside world, which makes it difficult for them to escape and also makes them more vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse. Like foreign construction workers in the UAE, domestic workers are dependent upon their sponsoring employer, but it is their exclusion from protection that augments the sponsor-employer’s power and control (Caplin, 2009; HRW, 2010b). In addition to the abuses, domestic victims face poor nutrition. Eleven of 26 Filipina domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in the July 2006 report
Swept Under the Rug: Abuses Against Domestic Workers Around the World
stated that they were deprived of adequate nutrition. “I don’t want to die from starvation and too much work,” Rosa Alvarez told HRW. “Breakfast was water and bread, there was no lunch. They would say I can only eat bread. I lost five kilograms [11 pounds] in three months” (Sunderland, 2006).
Trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation is also an issue in the UAE. Women and children from Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan are trafficked to the UAE for this purpose. Some women accept positions as hotel employees or secretaries but then are forced into domestic servitude or prostitution (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010; UNODC, 2009). It is challenging
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