Methodology

In November 2006, Human Rights Watch released Building Towers, Cheating Workers, a report that documented abusive conditions faced by migrant construction workers in the emirates of Dubai and Sharjah. The report found that migrant workers were indebted to unscrupulous recruiters, exploited by employers, and obliged to work in hazardous, even deadly, conditions, and concluded that the UAE federal government had failed to adequately address these abuses. The workers' most common concern was extremely low wages, which their employers typically withheld for a minimum of two months along with their passports, as "security" to keep them from quitting. Despite this and other rights violations, the workers felt compelled to remain in their jobs, because they had incurred large debts to recruitment agencies in their home countries, which they paid to finance visa and travel costs. UAE federal labor law offered a number of protections, including prohibiting charging workers visa and travel fees, but for migrant construction workers these laws were largely unenforced.

In February 2007, after media reports that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation planned to build a Gehry Partners-designed museum on Saadiyat Island, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Foundation and to the architectural firm to urge the Guggenheim to take steps to counter the likelihood workers on Saadiyat would suffer from widespread abusive labor practices.[2] In April 2008, at a meeting with Human Rights Watch, representatives of the Guggenheim Foundation said local authorities in Abu Dhabi had taken promising steps to improve foreign workers' circumstances, and noted that Human Rights Watch's 2006 report covered only the northern Emirates, implying there was insufficient research to substantiate concerns about abuses in Abu Dhabi.[3] Guggenheim officers argued that Abu Dhabi was an exceptional emirate more amenable to change than others.

To determine whether the abusive circumstances Human Rights Watch documented in Dubai and Sharjah in 2006 was of similar cause for concern in Abu Dhabi in 2008, Human Rights Watch conducted four research trips to Abu Dhabi between July and November 2008, carrying out a wide range of interviews and meetings with the people involved in the construction and development of Saadiyat Island and worker issues in the UAE.

In the course of researching this report, Human Rights Watch spoke to 94 foreign workers who currently work on Saadiyat Island, all of whom were construction workers apart from four security guards and five cleaning or kitchen staff. We conducted the majority of interviews on the island; others were conducted in labor camps elsewhere in Abu Dhabi. Human Rights Watch interviewed an additional 21 foreign workers at labor camps in Abu Dhabi who do not work on the island, including employees of construction, cleaning, and security companies, and labor camp supervisors; as well as seven construction workers at a labor camp in Dubai. Human Rights Watch also interviewed members of two NGOs that work on behalf of foreign workers in the UAE; staff at the UAE embassies of six labor-sending countries; owners or general managers of construction companies (which are not working on Saadiyat Island); officers at the Tourism Development and Investment Company responsible for overseeing the development of Saadiyat Island; a labor lawyer; and UAE Ministry of Labor officials. We also met and corresponded with representatives of the Agence France-Muséums, which oversees the Louvre Abu Dhabi project, and of the French government; and representatives of the Guggenheim museum. We wrote to and met with officials of New York University, and wrote to the architectural firms listed above (see "Recommendations").

Most workers interviewed for this report said they were afraid they their employers might punish them for speaking about their problems; at their request, this report withholds their names. Officials from the embassies of labor-sending countries similarly requested to speak on condition of anonymity, as did the leader of a migrant workers' rights NGO based in Dubai.

Human Rights Watch attempted to interview company officials from a number of construction companies operating on Saadiyat Island, who are directly responsible for securing migrant construction workers, including Zueblin, Al Habtoor, Leighton, Arabtec, and Al Jaber construction companies. Zueblin and Leighton responded positively to requests for interviews, but later declined to meet on the basis that TDIC had insisted that under the terms of their contracts to work on Saadiyat Island, only TDIC should meet with Human Rights Watch.[4] TDIC officials met with Human Rights Watch and said they were not aware of any such terms or correspondence with Leighton or Zueblin.[5] Human Rights Watch contacted all of these companies, as well as Abu Dhabi National Hotels / Compass (which employs migrant workers to operate cleaning and food services at the main labor camp on Saadiyat Island) again in early 2009 with concerns based on our on-site observations and interviews we conducted with their employees on Saadiyat Island or in labor camps in Abu Dhabi.  As of April 9, 2009, only Ed. Zueblin AG and Al Habtoor Leighton Group had responded to our questions.[6] 

Human Rights Watch requested information on progress on UAE governmental reform efforts – including the revised labor law, increasing the number of labor inspectors, MoUs with labor-sending countries, allowing unionization, and other areas – from the Ministry of Labor.[7] Human Rights Watch sought information about the Ministry's actions to combat the withholding of workers' passports, illegal fees charged to workers and deception regarding conditions of employment by labor supply agencies, illegal deductions from and late payments of salaries, lack of overtime pay, lack of adequate holidays and break hours, health and safety inspections, and coercive contractual circumstances. We also asked the Naturalization and Residency Department of the Ministry of Interior for information regarding the number of migrant workers in Abu Dhabi, and details about the criteria for approving, denying or cancelling work visas, the procedure for deporting workers, efforts to curb illegal visa selling, and inspections of accommodations used to illegally house workers.[8] Neither the Ministry of Labor nor the Ministry of Interior had replied by the time this report went to press.

Abu Dhabi and Saadiyat Island

Bordered by the Sultanate of Oman to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south and west, and by the Arabian Gulf to the north, the United Arab Emirates covers 83,000 square kilometers (32,278 square miles) and has an estimated population of between 4.6 and 5.6 million.[9] The emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Qaiwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah united and declared independence as the UAE in 1971 (previously they had been under British influence and referred to as the "Trucial States"). Arabic is the official language and Islam is the state religion.[10] The website of the ruler of Dubai states that 5.6 million people lived in the UAE in 2007.[11]

Abu Dhabi city, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, is the capital and the largest city of the federation. The emirate of Abu Dhabi covers 70 per cent of the UAE land area and controls 94 per cent of the country's oil reserves; the UAE, in turn, has eight per cent of the world's proven crude oil reserves and five per cent of its natural gas.[12] In 2006, the Ministry of Economy placed Abu Dhabi's population at 33 per cent of the UAE total,[13] a figure of up to 1.85 million people in 2007. The ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is also the president of the UAE; he succeeded his father, Sheikh Zayed, to both positions in 2004.[14]

The government of Abu Dhabi is led by a central Executive Council, chaired by the Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan; a 60-member National Consultative Council, composed of appointees from the emirate's most powerful tribes and families, plays an advisory role. Various departments, equivalent to ministries, fall under the Executive Council, as do a number of autonomous agencies, including the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA).

The emirate is divided into Western and Eastern Regions, headed by Ruler's Representatives. The emirate's main cities are Abu Dhabi on the western gulf coast and Al Ain near the eastern border with Oman; these cities, as well as the Western Region generally, each have a municipal administration headed by a nominated municipal council, which fall under the Department of Municipalities and Agriculture. [15]

The UAE constitution grants the country's federal government primacy in the fields of labor relations, nationality and immigration, among other issues. Individual emirates have also decreed and implemented their own standards in some areas related to foreign workers.[16]  Abu Dhabi, for instance, requires construction companies to provide health insurance to all employees, whereas Dubai mandated specialized bodies to protect workers' rights: the Human Rights Department of the Dubai police department or the Permanent Committee for Labor Affairs.[17]

It is not clear how many foreign workers live in the UAE or in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The UAE Ministry of Labor states that there were 3.1 million foreign workers in the country in 2007.[18] However, the figure may be higher: as interviews with foreign embassy officials suggests that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh alone account for up to 2.95 million UAE residents.[19] Construction workers also come from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, and elsewhere,[20] and the large population of foreign domestic workers in the UAE comes from the Philippines, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and other countries.

Extrapolating from official figures, a minimum of roughly 900,000 migrant construction workers live in the UAE, although actual numbers may be higher.[21] It is not known how many of these live in Abu Dhabi. Officials at the Embassy of Bangladesh estimate that 30 per cent of the Bangladeshis in the UAE, or roughly 200,000 people, are in Abu Dhabi. It is not clear if this proportion applies to other nationalities.[22]

By law, construction workers are not allowed to bring their families to the UAE.[23] All residents of labor camps in the UAE are male. The average "cycle" of a foreign construction worker in the UAE is "four to five years," according to a senior advisor to the Ministry of Labor.[24]

Saadiyat Island

The government of Abu Dhabi is developing Saadiyat Island as part of an overall attempt to diversify the economy from oil and gas.[25] Saadiyat Island is wholly administered by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA).[26]  In 2005, Sheikh Khalifa established the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), mandating it to manage the development of the ADTA's assets.[27]

As Saadiyat Island's master developer, TDIC's role is to contract out and oversee the island's phased development. According to a Guggenheim Foundation press release, "Saadiyat Island will be developed in three phases with total completion scheduled for 2018. The masterplan envisages six highly individual districts and includes twenty-nine hotels, including an iconic seven-star property, three marinas with combined berths for around 1,000 boats, museums and cultural centers, two golf courses, civic and leisure facilities, sea-view apartments and elite villas."[28]

In 2005, TDIC commissioned a master plan for Saadiyat Island's "Cultural District," which will be located on the tip of the island closest to the city of Abu Dhabi.[29] TDIC also entered a consultancy agreement that year with the Guggenheim Foundation, which had successfully opened a museum in Bilbao, Spain in 1997.

The cultural district will host six cultural institutions. The Guggenheim museum on Saadiyat Island, which like the Bilbao Guggenheim is designed by Gehry Partners LLC, will cover 41,411 square meters, making it larger than the foundation's flagship museum in New York City.[30] A Louvre museum, designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel and covering 24,200 square meters, will be located nearby. Foster and Partners' architectural firm won the design contract for the Sheikh Zayed museum, dedicated to Abu Dhabi's cultural heritage. Other institutions planned for the cultural district include a performing arts center designed by Zada Hadid Architects (52,381 square meters), and a Maritime Museum designed by Tadao Ando Architects (10,000 square meters). The first of these institutions scheduled to begin construction is the Louvre, which will break ground in late May 2009, with the Guggenheim and the Sheikh Zayed museum to follow. In November 2008, TDIC was reportedly reviewing planned development projects in places other than Saadiyat Island due to the global economic downturn, but was going ahead with the Louvre and Guggenheim.[31] Saadiyat Island's cultural district was reportedly "on track to be completed on time" as of January 2009.[32]

Saadiyat Island will also host a campus of New York University (NYU), designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects PC, which NYU expects to serve 2,000 students.[33] In October, the CEO of TDIC told news media that the British Museum would be "assisting with [the Saadiyat Island] project" in an undisclosed capacity.[34] Students at New York University have protested that the UAE bans Israelis from entering the country, criminalizes homosexuality, and restricts free speech.[35] NYU responded that it must abide by the laws of any country it operates in, and that the Abu Dhabi government had agreed to designate the university campus as a unique "academic freedom zone" where normal restrictions on speech would not apply.   

Abu Dhabi is providing the land and paying the design, construction and operating costs for these institutions. These costs are substantial; building the new Guggenheim museum, for example, is projected to cost roughly $200 million.[36] It will be the largest Guggenheim Foundation facility in the world.[37]Abu Dhabi is also, in some cases, providing large payments to the parent institutions. Abu Dhabi reportedly agreed to pay the French Museum Agency € 1 billion (US $1.4 billion) over 30 years in exchange for the use of the Louvre name and an initial loan of 300 artworks, in addition to other fees; the Agence France-Muséums will require that the Louvre Abu Dhabi meets technical standards and will be involved in training curatorial and other museum staff.[38] According to NYU, "The Abu Dhabi Government has committed to provide land, funding, and financing for the development, construction, equipping, maintenance and operation of the NYU Abu Dhabi campus. It has also made a commitment to NYU that will enhance the University's investment in faculty and programming" at its New York and other campuses.[39] Abu Dhabi reportedly made a US $50 million "down payment" on this commitment.[40] NYU will operate the Abu Dhabi campus as a branch of NYU New York.[41]

Since at least 2006, construction companies under contract with TDIC have undertaken massive backfilling and infrastructure projects on the island.[42] Workers trucked in sand, raising the island's level by four meters in some areas, and shored up parts of its coastline.[43] Other companies have partly completed contracts to build 10-lane bridges and roads linking Saadiyat to Abu Dhabi. TDIC has also awarded large contracts for the development of other districts on the island, such as the residential "Saadiyat Beach" district.[44] Landscaping has begun on a golf course.

Human Rights Watch interviewed workers on Saadiyat Island who came from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Thailand. The construction workers interviewed worked for Al Jaber, Al Habtoor, Leighton, and Zueblin, on a variety of projects, including landscaping, building bridges and highways. During the four-month period in which Human Rights Watch conducted on-the-ground research, construction companies under contract with TDIC were bussing in hundreds of workers to the island from labor camps elsewhere in Abu Dhabi, including the Commercial and Industrial zones of the Moussafah area, a 45 minute drive away, while hundreds more workers lived in several camps on the island itself. As of July, the main labor camp on the island alone accommodated approximately 1000 workers.[45] Increasingly, the majority of construction workers will live in this central "construction village," which when complete will house up to 40,000 workers. The first phase, with 5,000 beds, has been finished, although not all the beds are occupied. According to a manager of the camp, TDIC subcontracted the operation of the camp to a joint venture of Abu Dhabi National Hotels and Compass Group PLC.[46]