Low-income migrant workers in the UAE report that they are facing an outbreak of dengue due to a lack of clean-up efforts by the government after the floods that occurred in April, according to a report released by FairSquare.

Qatar’s Shura Council has suggested reintroducing exit permits for domestic workers, though it has rephrased the practice as ‘obtaining employer approval’ at least five days before departure.

The Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) has filed two complaints against Saudi Arabia with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), emphasising the widespread human rights abuse of migrant workers in the Kingdom, including forced labour. The cases highlighted involve over 20,000 construction workers who are victims of wage theft and other labour abuses.

Effective June 2024, Kuwait’s Public Authority for Manpower will introduce new fees for work permits and sponsorship transfers, and remove fees for companies that recruit beyond their visa allocations.

Domestic workers in Saudi Arabia who are reported as absconding will soon have a two-month grace period to leave the country before their status becomes irregular. Workers with over two years of service will have the additional option to transfer sponsorship.

Starting next year, employer-provided health insurance coverage will be mandatory for all private-sector and domestic workers across the UAE, following a nationwide health insurance mandate ratified by the Emirati cabinet. 

Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior recently announced a three-month amnesty period that allows residents with expired visas to adjust their irregular status after paying a fine, or leave the country without paying a fine.

The UAE’s amended labour litigation regulations came into force last month. The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation is now empowered to issue final executive decisions concerning individual labour disputes valued at AED 50,000 (US$ 13,613) or less.

Bahrain recently announced that only sponsored visit visas can be converted to work permits, and they must maintain the same sponsor who initially issued the visit visas. The fees for converting visit visas to work permits, visit visas to dependent visas, and dependent visas to work permits have also increased from BD 60 (159 US$) to BD 250 (663 US$).

Several recent reports of Indian domestic workers trapped in Oman indicate that the Sultanate still has not addressed its rife trafficking issues.

Kuwait recently resumed family visa applications for migrant residents. However, residents seeking to sponsor their family members must now earn a monthly salary of KD 800 (US$ 2,600) and possess a university certificate relevant to their job sector.

Bahrain has recently expanded its “Labour Registration Program” to include all irregular workers. Previously, only workers who became irregular before the program’s introduction on 27 October 2022 were eligible to apply.

The UAE’s registration deadline for its private mandatory unemployment insurance scheme officially closed on 1 October 2023. Workers who did not register by this date will face a fine of AED 400 (US$ 109). New workers who join the UAE’s labour force have four months to subscribe to the unemployment insurance scheme before incurring fines.

Bahrain has officially lifted its midday summer work ban. Starting today, workers labouring outdoors are no longer required to stop work during the hottest hours of the day, even as extreme temperatures and high humidity persist.

In a recent case, an Indian worker in Bahrain was arrested for damaging vehicles of the construction company that employed him, in protest against 10 months of unpaid wages. The worker’s desperate actions highlight the difficulty migrants face accessing justice in Bahrain and the shortcomings of recent reforms aimed at tackling wage theft.