The UAE’s kafala system gives employers excessive control over migrant workers, limiting their job mobility and enabling abuses like wage theft, illegal fees, and passport confiscation. Workers are vulnerable to heat-related illnesses due to insufficient protection, and domestic workers face severe exploitation, including violence and confinement. Despite legal reforms, protections for domestic workers are inadequate. The government has yet to establish a non-discriminatory minimum wage. Internationally, trade relations with the UAE continue despite human rights concerns, with the UK resuming free trade agreement negotiations without solid commitments to migrant worker protections.
LORD, we pray for the end of exploitation and mistreatment of domestic/migrant workers in UAE. Let them experience divine protection from harm and violence (The Holy Bible, Psalm 103:6).
Father GOD, stir the hearts of leaders of the UAE and the international community to advocate for the rights of migrant workers. We pray for them to seek justice and accountability on migrant workers’ behalf (The Holy Bible, Proverbs 31:8).
News Source: Human Rights Watch
