Nobody knows the extent of the mental toll this situation has put on us. There is a very real chance that many workers will resort to suicide. The Government should do something for us. It’s either that or they’ll have to send our dead bodies home. [0.1]

Bilal, construction worker in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

In November, world leaders from government and business will gather at the G20 Summit hosted by Saudi Arabia. A statement on the Summit released by the Saudi Arabia government speaks of “Empowering People” and addressing a global economy that “is not delivering for all” and as “inequalities are growing amidst a rapidly evolving environment.” The ongoing global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will undoubtedly be a major topic for discussion. Under its presidency of the G20 this year, Saudi Arabia promises to “focus on policies that promote the equality of opportunities especially for underserved groups.” [0.2]

As this report documents, the ground reality is very different from these noble aspirations. Governments and businesses in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and, to a lesser extent in Qatar, have been guilty of racial discrimination in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, acting quickly to provide financial and other benefits to local business and nationals, while leaving thousands of migrant workers in jobless destitution and, in some instances, facing death, and the ever-present risk of being infected by a deadly virus.

Migrant workers left destitute by reduced and unpaid wages

Equidem’s research uncovered cases of unpaid wages and other exploitation that cut across sectors and businesses big and small. Companies have placed migrant workers on drastically reduced salaries or unpaid leave without their consent and inadequate monitoring by state authorities. Even some of the largest businesses in the region are guilty of practices that amount to discrimination, modern slavery or labour exploitation with regard to workers in their supply chains. For example, Saudi Aramco, the giant Saudi oil and gas conglomerate, the second-largest company in the world, appears to have maintained wage payments for its own low-wage employees. However, our research reveals that thousands of low-wage migrant workers employed by subcontractors were left unpaid for as many six months. This has left workers in Aramco’s supply chain in situations of poverty and extreme distress.

Saudi Aramco

Equidem spoke to fifteen migrant workers employed by six different subcontractors of Saudi Aramco. The men said their companies failed to pay them either wages owed before the pandemic struck Saudi Arabia, during the pandemic or both.“I had heard about a policy of the Saudi government according to which the employer has to pay 60% of salary up to 6 months to those not having work,” said Rabindra, who works at the North Terminal of Saudi Aramco, Dammam who is employed for M.S. Al-Suwaidi Holding Co. Ltd, a sub-contractor of Aramco. He added, “but my employer has not paid me since March. We were told that we will be paid 50% of our salary, but we haven’t received anything yet.” [0.3]

Migrant workers on a crude oil pipeline upgrade project for Saudi Aramco. They told Equidem that their employer, an Aramco sub-contractor, terminated their contracts after the COVID-19 pandemic started. The men say they are owed wages and their end of service benefit payments. © Equidem 2020.

Dubai Expo

Thousands of workers employed by construction companies working on the Dubai Expo mega project in the United Arab Emirates have lost jobs with little or no notice and with salaries and benefits for work already undertaken yet to be paid. Many of these workers were put on a plane and sent home, while others languish in basic, crowded worker accommodation camps without pay and far from their families. Equidem documented nine cases of workers employed by four separate contractors operating on the Dubai Expo who had not been paid wages. Govinda, a construction worker employed by JML (UAE) LLC on the Dubai Expo mega project, told Equidem that the 300 AED ($80) he received from his employer every month to cover food expenses during the pandemic was insufficient, particularly as he has not received a salary since the start of the year. On top of that, JML said the food allowance would be deducted from his salary once he started working again: 

Now that the work has also started, and we do 10-15 days’ shift in a month, we thought we would get our payment. But, we still have not got our salary. The company always tells us to have  patience and we will get paid, but no one knows when we will be paid. All of us are struggling financially. We have responsibilities on our shoulders. Who will take care of our family if we are not paid? [0.4]

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™

Even workers employed by a sub-contractor on construction sites for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar were subjected to exploitation and physical abuse. At least one worker employed by a World Cup site sub-contractor died of complications after he tested positive to coronavirus and waited days to be shifted to medical facilities. Rifat, a construction worker employed by Rise and Shine Group, a Qatar 2022 sub-contractor, said that his friend who was infected with COVID-19 was not isolated and was taken to the hospital four days after testing positive:

”My friend Vyom had high fever for four days. We informed the company about his health but he remained in our camp and was not isolated. He was taken to hospital only after four days. He died at a hospital while undergoing treatment. Our camp boss told us that he was diabetic and had breathing complications that caused his death.”

Pandemic changes to labour regime open the door to modern slavery

These practices have only been possible because the Governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar weakened labour protections and then failed to adequately enforce laws and programmes on wage payments. This made it easier for employers to reduce salaries or terminate employment contracts, leaving thousands of workers in situations of forced labour and modern slavery virtually overnight. Equidem documented several cases of workers being made to sign documents against their will that enabled employers to claim low-wage staff had volunteered to take pay cuts or go unpaid. Some of the workers interviewed by Equidem said that they feared reprisals for complaining about lack of payments from their employer. Parth, a construction worker in Saudi Arabia, said he and other co-workers had not been paid for five months. He told Equidem:

When we ask for our payment, we get beaten up. This is not the first-time workers at the company have faced physical abuse. They make us work overtime duty hours without paying for the extra hours. Anyone who refuses to work is beaten. Many workers have already run away from the company. A worker in the company, told me he was beaten up by the supervisor a lot. We are all scared to file a complaint because then, we will get beaten more. I just want to get my payment and go home. [0.5]

Crowded accommodation camps and poor quarantine facilities increase COVID-19 risks

Even where governments have acted to improve conditions in migrant accommodation camps or at their places of employment to prevent the spread of the virus, this has not adequately raised standards to protect migrant workers. Whether in their accommodation or at quarantine facilities, workers continue to be placed in situations where social distancing is simply impossible. “There are 3,000 workers in the camp where I live,” said Govinda a painter employed by JML Constructions, a Dubai Expo contractor in the United Arab Emirates. He added, “each floor has a kitchen and toilet and around 80 people share a single toilet and kitchen. It gets very crowded. In the morning there are lines to use the bathroom. There is no way we can maintain social distance in such a small area.” [0.6]

Women and men held in separate quarantine facilities in Um Salal Ali, Qatar, after testing positive to COVID-19 complained that it was impossible to socially distance. They also complained about the quality and quantity of food provided. © Equidem 2020.

Severe psychosocial impacts of the pandemic on migrant workers

Dozens of migrant workers told Equidem they were dealing with significant insecurity and stress as they are struggling to survive financially and deal with the risk posed by COVID-19 to their health and ability to earn a living. Bilal, a construction worker in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said:

This has led us to panic. I am afraid and have depression as well. Nobody knows the extent of the mental toll this situation has put on us. There is a very real chance that many workers will resort to suicide. The Government should do something for us. It’s either that or they’ll have to send our dead bodies home. [0.7]

Arnav, working as a sewing machine operator in the United Arab Emirates, said:

All I could think about was my family. I did not have money to send them. Every bite of food I took here, I remembered my family. It pained me knowing that they are struggling to buy food. We have no farmlands like other people in the village. We have no other source of income. [0.8]

Aarul, a cleaner from Bangladesh working in Doha, Qatar, was left hungry and in total despair because his employer was failing to provide him with wages or food:

I haven’t received my salary since March. We do not get food allowance either. Now we have to wait on the charities to get food, and sometimes we collect enough money to buy some basic items to cook. Some nights I go to bed hungry. Our employer was also supposed to pay house rent but they do not pay it regularly. I came here to work for my family, not to be a beggar living on my own. [0.9]

Gulf government initiatives to protect migrant worker wages and health 

All three governments have set up schemes to protect wages and enable access to health care that would provide the basis for a rights-respecting response to the pandemic if adequately implemented. Among these responses are several good practice and positive policy initiatives, including:

• The provision of free health care services to all migrant workers irrespective of their legal status in the country with the guarantee that irregular workers can access this care without fear of any penalty.
• Guaranteeing the full salaries of migrant workers who are in quarantine or undergoing treatment for COVID-19.
• Ensuring that stranded migrant workers have access to adequate accommodation and food while in lockdown.
• Developing national, multimedia information campaigns in different languages that are specifically aimed at migrant workers.
• Establishing multilingual hotlines for accessing information and making complaints against companies that are not complying with the law. 
• Free visa extensions and refunds for those impacted by the crisis.

Significant non-compliance by businesses across industries

Our research indicates that there is a significant level of non-compliance by employers with many of these initiatives and other regulations. The fact that government authorities in the Gulf are prepared to commit to policies like providing free health care to migrant workers, on an equal basis with its citizens, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, nationality or residency status, is a positive advance. So too is Qatar’s stated ambition that many of the measures introduced to support and protect migrant workers as part of its efforts to combat COVID-19 “will lead to permanent changes that have a positive effect on the society as a whole”. Promises of a reform to the kafalasystem in Saudi Arabia from March 2021, particularly steps towards the elimination of the exit permit and increased internal labour market mobility, are welcome. If these changes were to be enacted into law and adequately implemented consistent with international conventions and standards, they could lead to a significant improvement in rights compliance in the Qatar and Saudi labour markets. However, even these changes cannot address the significant gaps in protecting the human rights of millions of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

Prohibition on union participation hampers labour protections

The inability to respect the right of migrant workers to form and join a union, and collectively bargain, means that a critical ingredient to resolving labour disputes and developing a mature, rights-compliant labour market is absent. Given the scale of the migrant worker populations, an estimated 24 million in the three countries combined, state authorities and businesses alone will continue to struggle with labour disputes involving dozens, hundreds and even thousands of workers at a time. Equidem’s research uncovered serious situations of racial discrimination and labour exploitation. But the most common violations faced by migrant workers are centred around the payment of wages and other benefits. As the international labour system recognises, these issues are best resolved through a tripartite process that includes worker representation through trade unions. Moreover, trade union bodies are already active in one shape or form in many of the Gulf states, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Path to citizenship key to respecting migrant workers rights

A path to citizenship through naturalisation is also critical to ensuring that the women and men who toil in arduous and often back-breaking low-wage jobs are fully recognised as members of wider Gulf societies. Naturalisation would not only enable the state to codify and implement rights protections into law and practice more effectively. As Gulf authorities recognise the need to shift their economies away from a dependence on the oil and gas industries, naturalisation would help grow and diversify the labour market along with the economy. Most importantly, only naturalisation can address the wide gap between the rights and protections afforded to non-nationals and nationals. States must respect their human rights obligations to all women, men and children regardless of their nationality or circumstances. But a path to citizenship would reflect the de facto reality: that for thousands of migrant women, men and children who have lived there for years if not decades, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or the United Arab Emirates is their home.

1.1 Recommendations

Recommendations for the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar

Equidem calls on the governments of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and businesses operating in these countries to take the following steps.

End racial discrimination

1. End the racial discrimination of migrant workers by providing employment, health and other protections and benefits to all women, men, and children without distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin, gender or sexuality.
   • The authorities should amend labour laws, rules and guidelines in line with their international obligations to prevent racial and other forms of discrimination.
   • Address wage discrimination based on nationality by ensuring migrant workers are paid equal pay for equal work regardless of their race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin, gender or sexuality.
   • Ensure migrant workers have non-discriminatory access to health care and other social services regardless of their visa status. Remove the sponsor/employer from the process of registering workers for residency permits, public health and other services.

Pay workers outstanding wages and protect their well being

1. Ensure all migrant workers are paid the wages and other benefits owed to them, including the women and men who are no longer based in the country.
   • Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates authorities should establish a mechanism to enable workers in the Gulf and in their countries of origin to submit wage and other labour complaints.
   • The mechanism should also address cases where workers have died or have been incapacitated so that their dependents may receive any award of wages or other benefits.
   • The mechanism should be established in collaboration with businesses and business representative bodies, governments in workers’ countries of origin, international trade union bodies, and civil society groups.
   • Actively penalise business enterprises and prosecute business owners, management, and staff who are responsible for unpaid wages, or subjecting migrant workers to forced labour, modern slavery, physical and mental abuse, or other forms of labour exploitation.
2. Establish a mandatory state pension fund for all workers irrespective of their nationality funded by state and employer contributions.
3. Amend labour laws to require employers to pay workers for periods of absence due to illness.
4. Enhance and enforce existing labour protections and other laws that would enable governments and businesses to respect migrant worker rights if adequately implemented.
   • Enhance and enforce existing laws that prohibit the charging of recruitment-related costs to migrant workers. 
   • Establish and implement a state-run wage protection and insurance scheme to indemnify wage payments and provide humanitarian support.
   • Work with international and local experts and migrant community groups to develop and implement strategies to provide culturally appropriate and gender-sensitive psychosocial support to migrant workers.

Increase worker awareness of their rights and pandemic health care

1. Increase efforts to raise worker awareness of their rights and avenues for support and redress, including with respect to labour disputes and access to health care.
   • Enhance and enforce existing requirements on business to conduct mandatory training of migrant workers, ensuring this training is culturally appropriate and gender-sensitive, and conducted in languages understood by workers.
   • Work with migrant community groups, international trade union bodies, and others across a range of platforms, including social and traditional media, to develop worker awareness initiatives tailored to the needs of individual migrant worker groups, taking into consideration the challenges that may be faced by particular individuals and groups based on their nationality, gender, sexuality or other characteristics, and the sectors and size of businesses they are employed in.

Respect the right to freedom of association

1. Recognise migrant workers’ right to join and form a trade union and collectively bargain through the passage of legislation.
   • Work with international trade union bodies and relevant international non-government organisations, and experts to develop legislation and programmes, such as worker representative committees, that assist workers and businesses to transition workplaces that respect and recognise trade unionism.
2. Permit independent human rights and labour rights observers access to Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to monitor conditions for migrant workers and ensure both observers and workers do not face reprisals for documenting situations of exploitation.

Provide a path to citizenship

1. Pass legislation to provide long-term migrant workers with a path to seek permanent residency and citizenship if they so choose.
2. Undertake awareness-raising campaigns across a range of platforms and avenues, including through social and traditional media, targeting negative and discriminatory perceptions of migrant workers.

Develop a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights

1. Draft a National Action Plan on Human Rights that includes business and human rights requirements, in line with the provisions of the UNGPs. 
2. Develop and carry out a plan for the implementation of the UNGPs that includes a strategy for increasing public awareness of international standards on business and human rights. Ensure that the widest possible representation of civil society, human and labour rights experts, and the business community is consulted on an ongoing basis for the development and implementation of state policies on business and human rights.

1.2 Recommendations for businesses operating in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar

To the Business Community in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

• Publicly commit to respecting human rights and labour rights and put in place adequate and transparent mechanisms to identify and prevent abuses due to business activities across the business and in supply chains. 
• Review business practices and policies to ensure that the company does not commit or materially assist in the commission of acts that lead to human rights or labour rights abuses.
• Require full disclosure from all partners, clients and suppliers, and publish a list of all contractors, suppliers and companies in value chains.
• Seek expert guidance, including that of civil society, to embed the UNGPs and other relevant international standards across business activities.
• Ensure workers are able to exercise their right to freedom of association, right to organise, engage in collective bargaining and collective representation, and freedom of speech.
• Actively develop and encourage industry bodies that seek to advance and implement international standards on business and human rights.

To International Businesses and Investors in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

• Develop and implement policies and practices on business and human rights in line with the UNGPs and other relevant international standards that partners and contractors in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar must respect as a legal requirement for doing business with you.
• Share specialist knowledge and expertise on business and human rights with counterparts and partners in the Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar business communities.
• Seek expert guidance, including that of civil society, on how to identify, prevent and mitigate human rights risks due to business activities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.