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.
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Following a roadmap and public consultation and several postponements, the European Commission published a draft Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence on 23 February 2022. The Draft Directive will now be negotiated within the Europea...Read More
This handbook is a resource and guide for project managers, developers, implementers, evaluators and donors working in the field of counter-trafficking, who want to develop performance indicators for their counter-trafficking projects. It is not int...Read More
In today’s globalized economy, the issue of international labor migration in supply chains is one of the most critical – yet largely unexplored – issues for our member companies and all businesses operating globally. Labor migrants now repr...Read More
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