This week the International Confederation of Trade Unions (ITUC) sent letters to the labor ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar demanding a “kafala amnesty” that would give Nepalese workers “the choice to leave the country … or temporarily return home for funerals,” with guarantees of bereavement pay, benefits and job security. These governments have not responded to the ITUC, the organization said, or to requests for comment on this article.Nepalese migrants are employed in construction and domestic work in Arab Gulf countries, where under the employment-sponsorship system called “kafala” in Arabic they are wholly dependent on their employers and vulnerable to labor and immigration abuses. Over the past decade, high-profile development projects in the Middle East — such as World Cup stadiums in Qatar, and Guggenheim, Louvre and New York University outposts in the UAE — have provoked criticism of regional labor conditions. Monitoring organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported that employers across the Gulf routinely refuse to pay wages, suppress organizing efforts, confiscate workers’ passports, withhold exit visas and house laborers in unsanitary, decrepit dormitories. And Nepalese workers often face the worst of the exploitation: A longtime activist in the Middle East (who asked to remain anonymous out of safety concerns) said that, whereas Filipino construction workers are paid a minimum of approximately $400 per month, their Nepalese peers are paid less than $250. Nepalese workers in the Gulf could not be reached for comment on those figures in time for publication.
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