According to an article in the LA Times concerning modern slavery:
One hot june day in 2006, I saw what slavery really meant. In a rundown mansion in a slum of Bucharest, Romania, a pimp offered to sell me a young woman he described as “a blond.” She had bleached hair, hastily applied makeup, and she [...]
From the Wall Street Journal (and via The Emirates Economist blog) -
SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates — Protests and violent skirmishes over rising prices are hitting parts of the Middle East, a region already beset by strife but otherwise enjoying an unprecedented, oil-fueled economic boom.
On Tuesday, hundreds of workers demanding higher wages to counter soaring food [...]
From the AFP:
MANAMA (AFP) — Around 1,300 migrant workers helping to build a luxury coastal development in Bahrain have gone on strike to demand higher wages, a company official said on Sunday.
The workers are employed by the contracting firm GP Zachariades to work on the Durrat al-Bahrain development in the south of the wealthy Gulf [...]
From Lankan Business online:
DUBAI, Jan 24, 2008 (AFP) - A Sri Lankan maid, in transit on her way home from Kuwait to see her children for the first time in three years, hanged herself in a toilet at Dubai airport, an Emirati daily said on Thursday.
The report came just two days after the oil-rich Gulf [...]
And some of you can help by donating clothes. I’m attaching two clippings of our local paper which has the contact information of the founder and a volunteer for an organization which distributes clothes to low-paid workers in need of help and support.
Click the images for larger viewing.
This is a compilation of articles concerning migrant workers in the Middle East.
- Slavery of children and women in Persian gulf countries
- Most citizens of Kazakhstan who fall victim to human trafficking are sent to the UAE
- May 26: “A group of Iranian boys and girls will be sold in an auction today in Fojeyreh, [...]
Kuwait City: Dec 12
Abubakar A. Ibrahim
Over a Hundred Indian workers on Wednesday staged a protest in front of the Indian Embassy to air their grievances against their company which allegedly ordered their arrest.
Four armed policemen on Tuesday raided the apartment of the workers where they assaulted and arrested 29 workers. The protesters claimed that [...]
An excerpt from a recent article published on the Bahrain Center for Human Rights:
The BCHR feels, however, that special attention must be given to the plight of female migrant domestic workers, as they have been by and large ignored and excluded from the discourse on women’s rights in Bahrain. In Bahrain, migrant workers employed as [...]
By BARBARA SURK for the Associated Press.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Foreign housemaids in the oil-rich Gulf sometimes work 21-hour days without medical care, enough food, or the right to go home, and they also face violence and harassment, a human rights report said Wednesday.
Dubai’s government, shaken by a rash of recent labor protests, [...]
Nadim Houry writes on the Daily Star Lebanon:
Over a month ago, a French documentary, “Liban, Pays des Esclaves,” harshly criticized Lebanese society and the authorities for their treatment of migrant domestic workers. But instead of being outraged by the behavior of their fellow citizens, many Lebanese expressed outrage against the filmmaker who dared to sully [...]