Zimpapers Logo

A collective of major international rights and labour groups have launched a fresh call for urgent action to protect migrant workers from abuse in Gulf Arab countries.A total of 90 organisations issued a statement yesterday, saying millions of mostly Asian and African workers are facing exploitation and abuses, including unpaid wages, physical violence and forced labour.

“Whether it is the scale of abuse of domestic workers hidden from public view or the shocking death toll among construction workers, the plight of migrants in the Gulf [region] demands urgent and profound reform,” said Rothna Begum, a Middle East researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

HRW was one of the signatories of the statement along with other groups, including Amnesty International, the International Trade Union Confederation, and the International Domestic Workers Federation.

The statement came ahead of a meeting this week of ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] and Asian countries on November 26-27 for the so-called Abu Dhabi Dialogue on labour migration.

About 23 million foreigners, including at least 2.4 million domestic servants, live in the six-nation GCC that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. –Al Jazeera