Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - United Arab Emirates (Ratification: 1982)

Other comments on C029

Observation

Direct Request

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Articles 1(1) and 2(1) of the Convention. Vulnerability of migrant workers to conditions of forced labour. The Committee notes that according to section 3 of Federal Law No. 8 of 1980 regulating labour relations, domestic workers are exempted from the law. The Committee also notes the information in the report of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) entitled “Internationally Recognized Core Labour Standards in the United Arab Emirates: Report for the WTO General Council Review of the Trade Policies of the United Arab Emirates” of March 2012, that “there are about 3.3 million migrant workers accounting for more than 70 per cent of the population in the UAE. Most males are employed in the construction sector and most females as domestic workers … the situation is more severe for domestic workers because they work in private homes and often face limitations to their mobility.” Besides “the sponsorship system makes migrant workers vulnerable to various forms of forced labour and exploitation. Especially in domestic services and in construction, there are many workers who are not free to leave their jobs. They are obliged to work from long hours under harsh conditions, suffer abuses and are sometimes unpaid for months.”

Furthermore, the Committee notes that, in its concluding observations of 5 February 2010, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, while noting the existence of draft legislation on domestic workers, expressed its deep concern about the lack of protection of female migrant workers, especially domestic workers, when reporting cases of violence against them that may lead to them being treated as offenders, or accused of a crime or deported (CEDAW/C/ARE/CO/1, paragraph 26).

In this regard, the Committee recalls the importance of taking effective action to ensure that the system of employment of migrant domestic workers (sponsorship system) does not place the workers concerned in a situation of increased vulnerability, particularly when they are subjected to abusive employer practices, such as retention of passports, non-payment of wages, deprivation of liberty, and physical and sexual abuses. Such practices might cause their employment to be transformed into situations that could amount to forced labour. The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide information on any measures taken or envisaged in order to strengthen the protection of migrant workers, and particularly migrant domestic workers, from possible abuses of their rights, particularly as regards their freedom to terminate their employment. It also requests the Government to supply a copy of the legislation on domestic workers, as soon as it is adopted.