HRW reports on maid abuse in UAE

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has published a report titled "I Already Bought You" on the abuse and exploitation of female migrant workers in United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Rezaul Hoquebdnews24.com
Published : 26 Oct 2014, 02:22 PM
Updated : 26 Oct 2014, 02:30 PM
The report is based on interviews of 99 female workers, taken in Nov-Dec 2013, and reveals cases of abuse against female migrant workers at various stages of their employment.
Migrant domestic workers in UAE usually come from Philippines, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Ethiopia.
In the 2013 report, the ILO says there were around 236,500 domestic workers in UAE in 2008, accounting for 12.8 percent of total work force. Among them, the number of female workers were 146,100.
The report severely criticised UAE's kafala, a visa sponsorship system, that gives the employer, also sponsor of visa, enormous power to have firm grip over migrant employees without providing safeguards for workers.
The system is very rigid for domestic workers as they cannot change the workplace without the consent of abusive employer and before the end of their current contract.
Moreover, the report has found that labour-supplying agencies confiscate passports of migrants workers as soon as they arrive in UAE and hand those over to their employers.
The report has also found that UAE's existing labour laws do not protect the domestic workers.
Workers who leave workplace without permission of employers face the risk of being dubbed as "absconder" and incur heavy penalty and more exploitation. Fleeing workers often face trumped-up criminal charges filed by their employers.
The report says 22 domestic workers alleged that their employers physically abused them.
One Tahira hailing from Indonesia told HRW that her employer twisted her arm behind her back so severely that it broke a bone above Tahira's wrist.
In addition, six workers alleged that they had been sexually harassed by their employers. An Indonesian worker Arti L told HRW that she was raped by her employer in July 2013.
Furthermore, workers also reported about psychological and verbal abuses, wage abuses, excessive work, deprivation of rest, limited communication, forced confinement, denial of adequate food, healthcare and inadequate living conditions.
In the report, the New York-based rights and advocacy group HRW makes a set of recommendations that include reforming the kafala system and enforcing the prohibition of workers' passports.
It also calls for ratifying ILO Domestic Workers Convention, the Protocol of 2014 to the ILO Forced Labour Convention,1930, and the Convention on the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.