Study: Migrant workers exploited en route to Arab Gulf
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — South Asian migrants working in the multi-billion dollar construction industry in Arab Gulf countries are shouldering the costs of their own recruitment fees while companies and their clients are reaping the benefits from inexpensive labour, according to a study released Tuesday.
The research by New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights found that workers spend an average of 10 to 18 months’ worth of salary paying off the fees that help facilitate their migration.
A slide in oil prices has slowed down the pace of construction in the Gulf and affected governments’ abilities to pay for major infrastructure costs, but there is still strong demand for millions of low-wage construction workers. Qatar is investing heavily in the construction of stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. Dubai is building up a vast desert area that will be the site of the 2020 World Expo.
In order to reduce the cost of labour on mega projects, a weakly controlled system for recruitment is passing on the costs to the workers themselves, says the study.