As the UK draws closer to finalizing a Free Trade Agreement with Gulf countries, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is visiting Saudi Arabia to boost domestic investment. Without concrete rights protections, the new British government risks furthering abuses rooted in Britain’s colonial past.
Widespread labor violations against migrant workers are effectively state policy in Gulf countries, where migrant labor is entrenched in local economies. A trade agreement with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states risks contributing to abuses against migrant workers, by further facilitating wage abuse, employer exploitation, and situations that amount to forced labor.
The UK should insist that a free trade agreement with Gulf countries includes concrete labor and other rights improvements, particularly for migrant workers.
During its colonial past, Britain held significant influence over a number of Gulf countries. The kafala (labor sponsorship) system, prevalent across the Gulf, was largely a British creation during the protectorate period. The new UK government should work to address the legacies of British imperialism. Unless the trade agreement requires all parties to address the abuses inherent in the kafala system, making improvements based on concrete benchmarks, the UK government could risk complicity in labor abuses.
Human Rights Watch recently released a report detailing how Saudi Arabia’s migrant workers – subject to the kafala system – face widespread abuses, including at high-profile “giga-projects” funded by or linked to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.
We found that Saudi authorities fail to protect migrant workers including by failing to enforce Saudi laws intended to protect migrant workers. Also, compliance with Saudi laws alone is insufficient, as many of these laws fail – by design – to meet the country’s obligations under human rights instruments.
During his visit, Starmer will likely seek investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, a near trillion-dollar Saudi state investment vehicle effectively controlled by one person: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Human Rights Watch has documented the fund’s links to human rights abuses.
British businesses should conduct due diligence prior to engaging with Saudi’s Public Investment Fund and refrain from doing business when serious negative human rights impacts are considered unavoidable. The British government should also investigate links between the fund’s investments and rights violations and consider sanctions against the fund until violations are addressed.
