News Desk: Migrant workers from Bangladesh and many other Asian and African countries are beaten, exploited, and trapped in forced labour situations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The UAE government, about to take up an influential new role in the International Labour Organization (ILO), has failed to adequately protect female domestic workers – many of them from the Philippines – from abuse by employers and recruiters.
The 79-page report, “‘I Already Bought You’: Abuse and Exploitation of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in the United Arab Emirates,” documents how the UAE’s visa sponsorship system, known as kafala, and the lack of labour law protections leave migrant domestic workers exposed to abuse.