Abuse of Migrant Workers in Middle East - Campaigning for Rights

[cmrnlza]

This is so shocking. Yes of course you can have domestic workers but that doesnt mean you have to abuse them. What is wrong with people ???

[delialah02]

How outrageous !

[lakshanwalpita65]

watch my film about middle east domestic workrs from sri lanka on you tube .. search as following. "black miracle - lakshan walpita" Thank you..

[AbuAbdullahAsSalafi]

The Messenger of Allaah, Muhammad Peace be upon him said:

الرَّاحِمُونَ يَرْحَمُهُمُ الرَّحْمنُ، ارْحَمُوا مَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ يَرْحَمْكُمْ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاء

“The merciful will be treated with mercy by the Most Merciful (Allaah). Be merciful to those who are on the earth and He (Allaah) Who is above the heavens will be merciful to you.” [Recorded in Abu Dawud]

[oclandestin]

@cherpayev ... It's impossible to go back to your home country if you haven't been paid for months or even years and you've had your passport taken away. These workers are virtual slaves. Regardless, they shouldn't have to "go back"; They're the people providing the labour and building the cities in the Gulf and they deserve their basic human rights to be met.

[ReddNeckerson]

It looks like these people need to go to Mexico to work. In the Mexican Constitution, Mexicans have the right to an 8-hour day and the right to strike, etc. Mexico is a worker's paradise!

[inten1978]

I think arabs abuse the islamic law where migrants and women concern. It's a shame, because it gave islam a bad name. No wonder all the great prophet ( from ibrahim to Mohammad) were all born in the middle eastern.

[inten1978]

sometimes I wonder why all the great prophet was born in this region ( from Ibrahim tomoses to jesus to Mohammad)... is this the reason why? It made sense now ...

[inten1978]

again ... the news in my country, an indonesian worker being tortured in saudi. I cant stop to wonder why there's so much case abt maid abuse. I dont wanna say its abt religion, becos being muslim myself, i know that is so wrong. These ppl go there to improve the lives of her family. But what is it abt the saudia ppl being like that, i mean theres like hundreds cases like this. I hope my goverment will evaluate abt sending workers to a country thats has so little abt human rights.

[TheMagyarMan]

I want to gather people's opinions about this matter, if you could please fill out my survey (this is for a university-level thesis paper) it would be greatly appreciated and will be passed on to high-powers. Thankyou, srilankanmigrants . questionform . com/public/Untitled-Survey-0?p­review=1&page=1

[oclandestin]

@TheMagyarMan ... Good luck with your research. You could try contacting the organisations/ links in the video info box for more feedback. I couldn't get your link to work, but feel free to post it again.

[you2ubeist]

most of these people are modern day slaves , who insisted to work 7 days with out getting minimum resting time as a human being and having a less pay , even though some companies are caring their labors , but some companies are cutting their salary because they cannot show 19 and 20 hrs of working time in papers , so still after working 7 days with out much resting time , their salary has been cut from to the said reason they have exceeded over time . esp . in Qatar

[ButherLi55ett]

What is this fascination with blogging, having an opinion etc about something like this, surely it is a mediation for taking any concrete action (just as leaving a comment on YouTube is). This is a political and class issue. What the fuck are NGO's going to do? Or any 'official' body? Working people have to organize and struggle for themselves. What is it that gives workers' (and I mean the speakers on this clip) so many illusions about bourgeois state's? As if they have the same interests?

[pankajkdhiman]

Sad :( some world leader should raise voice on migrant ill treatment in dubai.

In 2009 slump, there were many cases in dubai where the labour's salary was not paid for months. Although those sheikhs made them to work without pay. At the end tey were given one-way ticket back to their respective home country, without been paid.

Also those agent should be scrutinized for bringing those labours on false promise and pay them less than half of what promised.....

[shroudedeye318]

@waszzam23 hey the day you get off your ass and do your own labor yourself, they will. until then shut the fuck up and show some respect just because they actually work for a living

[jehaddrubi]

slave labor and abuse is common in gulf states

[waszzam23]

kid the prophet muhammed stated clearly that he is an arab and he features as well long hair light skin big eyes slope nose etc in a hadith e stated do not curse an arab for i am an arab so stop ur nonsense and thier is no such thing as arab faetures buddy arabs all look different but ur too stupid to understand it

[pigybnksbtr]

These agencies should fight for the rights of these abused workers and compenste them!!

[pigybnksbtr]

Most of these workers are hired by their agencies who pay their salary. Their employers are these AGENCY who came from diff. countries in Asia are sucks!!! they're paid off by the Arabs with BIG bucks and pay little to these workers. These agencies are responsible to these abused workers.

[meeloothekid]

They should unionize and strike.

[oclandestin]

@meeloothekid ... Unfortunately it's illegal for workers to form a union in UAE (and other Gulf states). Penalties would likely be imprisonment or deportation. And that doesn't just apply to poorly paid construction workers. Highly paid professionals such as Al Jazeera tv presenters/ journalists (in Qatar) have been deported/ sacked as a result. Some of the construction workers in UAE have organised protests, but they are pretty much powerless really.

[beyamama]

thank you for bringing attention to this problem!

the uae especially is guilty of abuse of migrant workers!

it was a joke to see when they opened the burj khalifa!

all I could think of was how many poor migrant workers died and suffered to build that waste of money!!!

truly a joke and we must help these poor misguided and abused citizens of our planet!

[yunaas101]

@CoolSubZero98 you have to make more research before you write something. 90% of the construction workers are muslims. they are from the subcontinent mainly Inida pakistan bengladish. i dont see many hindus living in middle east

simply is muslims abusing their own brothers. the arabs live like kings while their brothers are close to slave ig islam was their their would be equality between the two

[10hadji]

@yunaas101 ya wallah there should be equality im an arab and i see any muslim as my brother

[53tucci]

born in da uk me. but i wont be deluded by the imitation of care and considaration of this english woman. they practice racial injustice as do all white capitalist nation

[agentZambia]

@oclandestin India,Pakistan,Bangladesh we are all the same people, religion might be different but our ancestors are the same. All are being exploited.

[agentZambia]

@CoolSubZero98 Well is it not the Arabs who looted India?

[usb333]

@CoolSubZero98:

Well, No .. Er .. I wouldn't say it like that. I mean we're not supposed to treat people exactly the same way THEY treat us. That's just not reasonable. Actually it goes against the teachings of Islam.

@oclandestin:

I would really like to hear your personal opinion about this.

[oclandestin]

@usb333 ... Well, I agree with you; racist abuse and the exploitation of workers is against Islamic teachings... and it's a shame on Muslims. It's something Muslims have a responsibility to address.

[liyish]

This is so SAD all humans should have freedom.... OMG

[usb333]

of course we shouldn't forget about the huge numbers of migrant outlaws and worker committing crimes. but i'm not gonna talk about that because it will sound like if i'm justifying the abusing of our brothers and sisters, which is not on my wish list :D

[usb333]

ummm, being an Arab AND a Saudi might get me negative responses but.. I can assure you that some of this is true, but you can't just generalize it about all Arabs. It's a known fact that bosses and supervisors are extremely horrible at treating foriegners all around the world. But it would be wierd to see a normal street folk looking low on others, he might get ashamed if anyone sees the way he treats others.

[rafique101]

I would like to apologize to all members commenting on this discussion and would like to state that I apologize for my comments, many of which were ignorant and irrational generalizations. The states of the middle east and the indian subcontinent need to move past their religious differences and formulate a EU like bondage which may one day benefit the region. Extremes from all ideologies are detrimental to the larger cause, indiscriminate of race/creed/nationality.

[oclandestin]

Thanks for your comment Rafique.

[TrixTwins]

It is sad when people get abused, but remember they have accepted the conditions in exchange of a wage much higher than the misery in their countries.

Furthermore, they will never get rid of their foreigner status, and never get citizenship. That is good for the host countries, for they preserve their civilization while using high amount of foreign workers.

Immigrant invasions and naturalisation of immigrants like in Europe will never happen there.

[AlGhurazy]

Not all Arabs are the same, like not all white, indians, black, chinese are the same. Put some commen sense on your head. There is abusive people in every race so don't get emotional about a video and start hating the whole race. Search on youtube for abusive behavior among every race. Be respectful to others otherwise you are in the category of these abusive people with your racists comments.

[whoisa]

Oh God ... whats happening in middle east. are those people humans doing all these things on another human.

[Tareq88]

All these workers wanted was to improve the lives of their family. God bless them.

[inder19852000]

Watch this, "Sri Lankan maid abused in Saudi Arabia " on Youtube. Ariyawathi's Saudi employers hammered 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead, which had to be removed with surgery.

[oclandestin]

@inder19852000 ... Thanks. I saw that in the newspaper. It's absolutely horrific.

[Tareq88]

I swear I can't stand people who accuse every member of a race of being racists. There's a difference between being righteous and self-righteous.

[oclandestin]

The irony is they can't see they're being racist themselves.

[Rasheeda112]

I would love to volunteer for causes like this.. can someone help me with this please.. am living in qatar..

[oclandestin]

Salaam Rasheeda, Try contacting the migrant-rights or mideastyouth websites. The links are in the video info box.

[Rasheeda112]

Salaam hun, Ok thanks.. where are you based? do you do any work for over worked mirgrant workers and if so which country?

[oclandestin]

I live in the UK but I'm not actually involved in work with migrant workers myself.

[robertcbeck]

I am glad that I am not alone in standing up to this abuse, until recently I worked as a safety manager on a mega project in Qatar, I could not accept the abuse and took a stand; well last month I was sacked for doing what I know was the right thing to do. What I found shocking though was the fact that I had no support from western management to stop this abuse and stood alone up to the end.

[nelrod03]

@robertcbeck Thanks ! Its not only Qatar, but these incidents do occur in most of the Arab Gulf states. A worker maybe lucky if he works in a Company where the management is Western i.e. European/N American, etc. If the management is Arab or South Asian, the crap treatment of workers starts.

[NadiaDeFina]

@robertcbeck I have complained countless times to Dubai Airport about how they treat migrant workers as oppose to western or Arab people! but no body seems to care! I really don't understand!

[Jakemartins]

well heres the truth from what i've been seeing around me for the past years i dont know if its the jews controlling the middle east but i doubt that, but what annoys me the most is the most arabs think theyre the best race in the world and they should be treated good while others like indians/pakistan should be treated like crap because of where they're from what theyre doing is wrong i hope someone does something about it because its not fair for them >:(

[zio5q]

This is nothing less that a continuation of the slavery the Arab world has practice for thousand of years.

[SAIFAKHTER]

saudi arabia one of the most unfair labour law what is not happaning rest of the word, its very sad to say no one taking action about this issue. its very very pain in my ass. we are selfish people just think only one self other dai or alive or burn in fire not care. every one has right to live but we human very unfair with those migrant workers..

[jocelyn8337]

Dubai is the most unfair labour law or we can say no laws to those common people or expat especially,because i'm 1 of the thousand expat in Dubai that abuse by law no body listen to me but instead acusing me that i never did,now they ban me for life I cannot come and work in Dubai anymore. What i can say to those in the ministry of labour dept. in Dubai may allah bless you for what you did to those expat like me.without expat like us your country is nothing.

[oclandestin]

Thanks for your comment. I noticed you're in Bahrain now. Do you think Bahrain has better laws/ protection for migrant workers than Dubai?

[jocelyn8337]

the new Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA)-Bahrain is doing great job

[Jesusthepalestinian]

Human rights abuse and violations in our countries are shameful and disgrace