Prompted by international scrutiny of working conditions on flagship projects in Qatar and the UAE, in 2016, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre surveyed construction companies on their approach to safeguarding migrant workers’ rights in both countries.
Two years on and with a second survey, the findings show that while a consistent but small group of construction companies demonstrate real commitment to tackling the risks to migrant workers in their operations, the overwhelming majority operate with high risks to human rights and continued disregard for workers’ welfare. In both years, more than 70% of surveyed companies did not respond and over 60% did not have a public commitment to human rights.
This briefing analyses the survey responses and public human rights commitments of construction companies with current projects in the region and makes recommendations to companies, clients and governments to advance the rights of migrant workers.
An overview of the risks to migrant workers on construction projects across the Gulf. Migrant workers make up between 60% and 90% of the workforce in the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Low-wage construction workers are at...
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has quizzed 100 construction companies operating in Qatar and the UAE on the measures they are taking to stop exploitation of migrant workers. Only 22 responded, indicating a shocking level of inaction. Despite increasing...
This report gives an insight into the link between corporate practices in the Arabian Gulf’s engineering and construction sector and the recruitment – in South Asian countries like India and Bangladesh – of many of the migrant workers who staff the industry’s projects.
This brief provides a reference for worker reporting and worker empowerment tools and programs from the context of ‘worker voice,’ a concept that emerged with the birth of the organized labour movement during the Industrial Revolution. Two funda...Read More
This brochure presents an overview and introduction to human trafficking and the role that business can play in addressing it. It explains in practical terms what human trafficking is, why it is an issue for business and what companies large and sma...Read More
At the Abu-Dhabi Summit in 2015, governments and organisations agreed to establish and deliver, in their own countries, a coordinated national response to online child sexual exploitation, guided by the WePROTECT Global Alliance Model National respo...Read More
‘The best idea is to think of the victim in terms of rehabilitation and work towards it. You are working with people who have been in an environment where they were slaves; they now need to learn how to be in an environment where they are human. S...Read More
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