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The Gilded Cage: Syed Ali on the UAE and Migrant Labour

April 4th, 2010

UAE Workers

Leading UK daily The Times recently ran this article Dubai: Gilded Cage, reviewing sociologist Syed Ali’s new book of the same name on the paradoxes of life in Dubai.
Ali digs beneath the surface of ‘brand Dubai’ to examine the lives of the people who make up the Emirate’s p…

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Kuwait Again Promises to Abolish the Sponsorship System, Set Minimum Wage for Migrants

April 2nd, 2010

Kuwait Legislation Sponsorship

Kuwait’s Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Dr. Mohammed Al-Afasi announced this week the government’s intention to set a minimum wage for expatriate workers. In addition, Al-Afasi said that his ministry is in the process of creating an independent labor authority, which will eliminate...

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Lebanon: Dependency creates vulnerability, leads to exploitation (video)

April 2nd, 2010

Housemaids Lebanon Working conditions

In November 2009, one of Future TV’s Tawasul [Communicating] episodes was on the situation of women migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. In that episode (published below, partly in English), International Labor Organization (ILO) senior technical specialist, Ms. Simel Esim calls for the end of...

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Increase in Registered Cases of Abuse of Indonesian Maids in Abu Dhabi

April 2nd, 2010

Abusive employers Housemaids UAE

The Khaleej Times reported yesterday about a significant increase in the number of cases of abuse registered at the Indonesian embassy in Abu Dhabi. According to the embassy, most of the complaints are about unpaid wages and work overload while other complaints are about physical and sexual abuse. I...

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Kuwait Doesn’t Allow Migrants to Form Labor Unions

March 31st, 2010

Kuwait Legislation Workers

Migrant workers in Kuwait are not allowed to form labor unions or work syndicates, while Kuwaiti employers were granted this right in the emirate’s new labor law. Much criticism has been leveled against Kuwait’s new labor law, which was passed late last year, for not going far enough and...

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Lebanon: Ethiopian Suicides Blog and Nasawiya NGO Move to Action on MDWs for Labor Day

March 30th, 2010

Housemaids Lebanon

Ethiopian Suicides Blog and Nasawiya are concocting several actions and events to celebrate Labor day 2010 and to highlight the plight of more than 200,000 laborers in Lebanon: migrant domestic workers. Maids are falling from the windows and balconies of employers and employment offices under dubiou...

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Every Two Days a Migrant Worker Attempts or Commits Suicide in Kuwait

March 28th, 2010

Housemaids Kuwait Sponsorship Suicide Workers

As we at Migrant-Rights.org continue to monitor the situation of migrant workers in the Middle East, the frequent reports on cases of suicide by workers in Kuwait continue to draw our attention. We have previously covered the phenomenon when during November 2009 there were 13 reported cases of suici...

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Lebanon: Sit-In in Solidarity with Refugees Detained Arbitrarily

March 27th, 2010

Lebanon Prison Videos

CLDH (Lebanese Center for Human Rights) held last Thursday a sit-in in solidarity with arbitrarily detained refugees in front of the underground retention center of the General Security in Adlieh (Beirut). This sit-in, which CLDH urgently called for given the very serious deterioration of the situat...

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A Casket of Dreams: Deaths of Nepali Migrants Overseas

March 26th, 2010

Saudi Arabia Workers

This feature, ‘A Casket of Dreams’ appeared in the Kathmandu Post recently, one of Nepal’s leading English language dailies. Deepak Adhikari investigates the impact of the all-too-common phenomenon of deaths of Nepali workers overseas on their families. A Casket of Dreams One dri...

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