United Arab Emirates: Government Implements Human Rights Watch Recommendations

In the months following Human Rights Watch's groundbreaking report on abuses against migrant workers in the UAE, the government has made significant progress toward its stated commitment to reform, instituting a new labor law, requiring employers to pay for workers' health care and recruiting fees, and adding 2,000 inspectors to improve work site monitoring. These changes follow many of the recommendations from our report. Over the last year, Human Rights Watch has spoken out against routine human rights violations in the UAE's migrant labor-dominated construction industry, drawing international attention to the issue and making it impossible for the government to continue to turn a blind eye to the workers' plight. Just last month, after we published a new report critiquing the recently-released draft labor law, the government responded with a statement committing to additional reforms including a ban on recruiting agencies that charge fees and a minimum wage requirement for construction workers.