Archive for the ‘UAE’ Category

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Contention over UAE’s “unfriendliest” nation designation

January 21st, 2012

UAE

Forbes.com has ranked the UAE as the least friendly country in the world for expat workers. Countries trailing closely behind include Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The ranking was framed around the HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey, which polls expats across 100 countries regarding their “ability to befri…

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25% of migrant workers in the Emirates are clinically depressed

December 15th, 2011

Suicide UAE Workers

A new study conducted by the Community Medicine Department of the United Arab Emirates University reveals that at least 25.1% of migrant workers are clinically depressed. The study was conducted on 318 labor camp workers using translated questionnaires. The abstract is available online, and the stud...

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“Workers Emirates”

November 21st, 2011

General UAE Workers

Last week, CNN featured a collection of photography illuminating the ‘ghost’-like existence of migrant workers in the UAE. Photographer Philippe Chancel calls these cheap laborers “new slaves,” who underpin the Gulf’s hyper-development yet remain marginalized by society. His photog...

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Philippines toughens rules for maids in Gulf – can it make a difference?

November 2nd, 2011

Gulf Housemaids Sponsorship UAE Women

The kafala or sponsorship system in the Gulf should be abolished, this is an absolute prerequisite for the full personhood and humanization of domestic workers. The Philippine government's new standards for overseas domestic workers and tentative bans on 41 non-compliant host countries are praiseworthy but far from promising--it is highly doubtful that this cosmetically laudable "concrete plan" will make it far off of the pages of the government’s issuance.

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Dated TB Laws Do More Harm Than Good

October 31st, 2011

Deportation Gulf Legislation UAE

The social and medical effects of the GCC’s controversial tuberculosis (TB) deportation laws may not be worth the supposed advantages. The UAE deports individuals with active, new, or old pulmonary TB scars. Health officials claim to only deport newcomers, and not long-term residents. But thi...

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PH govt. to ‘extort’ P18-M yearly on ‘Affidavit of Support’ requirement

October 8th, 2011

General UAE

The Philippine government under the Aquino administration is expected to earn around P18-M to 20-M from imposing a requirement, the Affidavit of Support (AoS), to all overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) dependents bound to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a Filipino migrants’ rights group...

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Horrific new story of an Indonesian worker

August 10th, 2011

Rape UAE Women

Today, a story was all over news portals and twitter messages highliting a case of rape of an Indonesian worker in Abu Dhabi by two Emiratis, one of them a former policeman and the other, a woman. Rape was followed by beating the woman to death. They say their intention was not to kill her but she d...

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Commentary: Women Filipino Inmates with Children in Dubai Prison

August 9th, 2011

General Prison UAE Women

9 August 2011 Commentary: Women Filipino inmates with children in Dubai prison by John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator   Last week, Migrante-Middle East (M-ME), care of this writer, received reports about the more or less fifteen (15) women OFW inmates with children...

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UAE: Two Suicides of Ethiopian Women in One Day

June 15th, 2011

Housemaids Suicide UAE

The epidemic of suicides of migrant workers in the UAE continues unabated: on June 13, UAE papers reported about two suicides of Ethiopian migrant workers. At 4pm on June 11, police rushed to a house in Ras al-Khaimah where a 29-year-old Ethiopian maid attempted to end her life by overdosing on pill...

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