After spending another year documenting abuses of migrant workers in the Middle East, it’s time that we look back at the most significant, influential and important stories that we’ve covered.
1. Death of Domestic Migrant Workers in Lebanon
This story is significant not just because of t…
Archive for the ‘UAE’ Category
Top 5 Migrants’ Rights Stories in the Middle East for 2009
January 2nd, 2010
Bahrain Housemaids Kuwait Lebanon Legislation MR Site Sponsorship Suicide UAE Working conditions
The Impact of the Dubai Financial Crisis on Indian Workers
December 26th, 2009
Al Jazeera English recently showed a report about the impact of the financial crisis in the Gulf on Indian migrant workers. Many of the people interviewed have lost their jobs and some are on forced leaves. According to a recent study by an Indian think-tank, 264,000 workers from South Asia have los...
UAE: Couple Guilty of Forcing Three Women into Prostitution Receives Lenient Sentence
December 26th, 2009
The Gulf News reported earlier this week that the Iraqi couple that forced two women and one girl into prostitution in the UAE, was sentenced to three years in prison each. As we’ve previously mentioned, the couple held a 17-year-old girl and two Iraqi women in an apartment in Sharjah and forc...
Abusive Employer to be Tried in the UAE
December 25th, 2009
Abusive employers Housemaids Legal cases Slavery UAE
A Filipino maid who was abused by her employer will testify before a court in Ajman, UAE in two weeks, the National Newspaper reported today. According to the report, the 25-year-old maid, Marilyn Vinluan, was repeatedly slapped, kicked and beaten with an electrical wire by her female employer, whil...
HRW Overview of Migrant Workers Rights in the Middle East in 2009
December 20th, 2009
Egypt Housemaids Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Legislation Saudi Arabia Sponsorship Suicide UAE
Human Rights Watch (HRW) published last week a summary of the reports and research they’ve conducted over the last year on migrant rights. The end-year report highlighted the lack of protection of migrant workers in many Middle Eastern countries. In Kuwait, the report focused on the Sponsorshi...
Nepal Struggling to Prevent Trafficking of Women to the Gulf
November 30th, 2009
Abusive employers Gulf Housemaids Kuwait Slavery Trafficking UAE
The UN’s IRIN News recently published a report about the difficulties Nepal’s government is having with preventing its women from traveling to the Gulf to work there in the domestic labor sector. According to Nepali activists, there is a growing problem of trafficking of women to the Gul...
Philippine Fact-Finding Mission Calls for a Ban on Sending Maids to the Middle East
November 30th, 2009
Abusive employers Housemaids Jordan Saudi Arabia Slavery UAE
A three-member delegation of the Philippine House Committee on Workers Affairs visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan during October and found egregious violations of migrant rights in all three countries. The mission was sent following a rise in reports about cases of abuse of Filipino workers in...
Bangladeshi woman is the latest victim of human trafficking in Dubai
November 26th, 2009
The Gulf News reported yesterday about a case of a Bangladeshi woman who was lured to the UAE with promises of a job as a housemaid. When she arrived, she was taken by a gang of three Asian men and a woman and informed that she’ll be working as a prostitute. Trying to escape her traffickers, t...
Dubai Labour Camps to get Sewage System
November 23rd, 2009
Last week The National reported that labour camps in Dubai were to get a modern sewage system, ending years of relying on septic tanks.The very fact that this story is considered headline-worthy bears testimony to the chronically low standard of accommodation that migrant labourers have to put up wi...
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