Dubai - Migrant Workers

• Background Information - Impacts:

  • Rapid development has come at the cost of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who suffered to build it.
  • The situation has become worse since COVID.
  • Thousands have lost their jobs and can't afford to go home.
• Impacts on Migrant workers (India & Pakistan):

  • Comprise 2/3 of Dubai's population.
  • Travel in search of work.
  • Live in camps.
  • Take out loans for work vis as and use their home as security on the loan.
  • Promised $400/month.
  • They don't get what they're promised; Can't pay back loans; Can't send money home.
• Impacts of Covid & Oil Price Crash:

  • This left hundreds of thousands of job losses in the UAE, where almost 90% of the workforce are migrants.
  • Early in the pandemic, the UAE's government ordered companies employing blue-collar migrant workers to continue to provide them with food and accommodation while they remain in the country.
  • Many haven't complied leaving workers dependent on food donations.