• Bahrain: Abuse of Migrant Workers Despite Reforms
    Sep 30, 2012
    Hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant workers in Bahrain face exploitation and abuse despite government reforms intended to protect them, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued today.
  • UAE: Report Highlights Need for Worker Protections
    Sep 27, 2012
    A report by an independent monitor underscores the need for companies involved in the United Arab Emirates’ Saadiyat Island project to ensure that their projects comply with international labor standards for migrant workers.
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Workers, Forced Labor & Trafficking

  • Bahrain: Abuse of Migrant Workers Despite Reforms
    Sep 30, 2012
    Hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant workers in Bahrain face exploitation and abuse despite government reforms intended to protect them, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued today.
  • UAE: Report Highlights Need for Worker Protections
    Sep 27, 2012
    A report by an independent monitor underscores the need for companies involved in the United Arab Emirates’ Saadiyat Island project to ensure that their projects comply with international labor standards for migrant workers.
  • Protecting the domestic front
    Sep 14, 2012

    It would be a wonderful gift for the many domestic workers if a treaty, which could signal better protection of their rights, was signed before Christmas. 

  • Nepal: Protect, Don’t Ban Young Women Migrating to Gulf
    Aug 13, 2012
    The Nepali government should revoke its new ban on women under the age of 30 from working in Arab Gulf countries and instead should improve protections so domestic workers can migrate safely – such as by ensuring full monitoring and accountability of recruitment agencies in Nepal.
  • The invisibility of domestic workers
    May 4, 2012

    Liesl Gerntholtz, the Director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, says one of the major problems they have found in their latest research (mainly in Asia and the Middle East) is that labor law does not recognize domestic workers as workers so they are therefore not well protected. 

  • Indonesia: Parliament Approves Migrant Workers Convention
    Apr 12, 2012

    Indonesia’s ratification of the Migrant Workers Convention will bring new protections for millions of Indonesian migrant workers, Migrant Care and Human Rights Watch said today. The Indonesian parliament adopted the international treaty on April 12, 2012, without reservations in a plenary session.

  • Singapore: Domestic Workers to Get Weekly Day of Rest
    Mar 5, 2012
    The decision by Singapore’s Manpower Ministry to grant foreign domestic workers a weekly rest day is an important reform but falls short of international standards. The changes, announced on March 5, 2012, go into effect only for new contracts beginning in January 2013 and do not address the exclusion of domestic workers from other key labor protections in Singapore’s Employment Act.
  • An abhorrent trail of abuse
    Jan 24, 2012
    At least nine Cambodian women died last year while performing domestic work in Malaysia. And the grim reality is that, without strong action by the Cambodian and Malaysian governments to rein in exploitative recruitment and employment practices, more lives will be lost in 2012.
  • Bahrain: Resolve Travel Ban Conundrum
    Jan 16, 2012
    Bahraini authorities should immediately resolve the predicament of foreign residents prevented from leaving the country due to debts, or from working to repay those debts.
  • Cambodia/ Malaysia: Domestic Workers Face Abuse
    Oct 31, 2011
    The Cambodian and Malaysian governments’ failure to regulate recruiters and employers leaves Cambodian migrant domestic workers exposed to a wide range of abuses. Tens of thousands of Cambodian women and girls who migrate to Malaysia have little protection against forced confinement in training centers, heavy debt burdens, and exploitative working conditions.
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