Labour standards
"The Island of Happiness": exploitation of migrant workers on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi
Exploitation of labour rights in Abu Dhabi
Authors:
Publisher:
Human Rights Watch , 2009
Saadiyat Island, in the Arabian Gulf, is a 27 square kilometer island consisting primarily of sand and mangrove swamp. Within a decade, if a $22 to 27 billion development plan goes according to schedule, the island will host six international cultural institutions, a performing arts center, a campus of New York University, two golf courses, expensive private residences, a marina, and 29 hotels. Jazeera al-Saadiyat – “the Island of Happiness” – is intended to become an exclusive international tourist attraction. But many of the migrant workers currently building Saadiyat Island have little happiness in their lives or work.
Despite affirmations on the part of the Government of Abu Dhabi to improve workers' rights, abuses continue. Reforms have failed to address the fundamental sources of worker exploitation – employee-paid recruiting fees, visas controlled by employers; very low wages often far below what was promised workers in their home countries; and restrictions on organising and no real access to legal remedies. As a result, the abuse of workers remains commonplace.
UAE law prohibits employers from working with agencies that charge workers recruiting fees - but neither the UAE government or their international partners have acted to ensure compliance with the law, and workers employed by the construction companies that are working on Saadiyat Island continue to bear this unlawful burden on their livelihood. Because they are often already highly indebted upon arrival in the UAE, many workers have virtually no power to bargain over the terms of the official UAE work contracts their corporate employers require them to sign upon arrival in the UAE. Many of the workers then discover that their salaries in the UAE were as little as 50 per cent of what the agencies in their home countries had promised, and that their overtime pay, vacation days and other benefits were also greatly reduced. UAE officials have stated that the UAE will not intervene in cases of contract fraud perpetrated by foreign labour agencies outside the country’s borders.
The paper presents a number of recommendations to:
- the Tourism Development and Investment Company of Abu Dhabi (TDIC)
- the Government of France, Agence France-Muséums, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and New York University
- the international architecture firms involved
- the construction and other companies employing migrant workers engaged in work on Saadiyat Island
- the Government of UAE.
