Reports

“Working Like a Robot”

Abuse of Tanzanian Domestic Workers in Oman and the United Arab Emirates

This report documents how the Tanzanian, Omani, and UAE governments fail to protect Tanzanian migrant domestic workers. Oman and the UAE’s kafala – visa-sponsorship – rules tie workers to their employers, and the lack of labor law protections leaves workers exposed to a wide range of abuse. Gaps in Tanzania’s laws and policies on recruitment and migration leave Tanzanian women exposed at the outset to abuse and fail to provide adequate assistance for exploited workers.

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  • Swept Under the Rug

    Abuses against Domestic Workers Around the World

    This 93-page report synthesizes Human Rights Watch research since 2001 on abuses against women and child domestic workers originating from or working in El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Togo, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

  • Inside the Home, Outside the Law

    Abuse of Child Domestic Workers in Morocco

    This 60-page report documents cases of girls as young as five working 100 or more hours per week, without rest breaks or days off, for as little as six and a half Moroccan dirhams (about 70 U.S. cents) a day.

  • Maid to Order

    Ending Abuses Against Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore

    This 124-page report is based on more than one hundred in-depth interviews with domestic workers, government officials, and employment agents.

  • Always on Call

    Abuse and Exploitation of Child Domestic Workers in Indonesia

    This 74-page report documents how Indonesian children as young as 12 work 14 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, without a day off. They are also forbidden from leaving their place of employment or contacting their families.

  • Help Wanted

    Abuses against Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Indonesia and Malaysia

    This 110-page report documents the abuse and exploitation that Indonesian female domestic workers experience at each step of the migration process. Most domestic workers are forbidden to leave their workplace and unknown numbers suffer psychological, physical, and sexual assault by labor agents and employers.

  • "Bad Dreams"

    Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia

    Migrant workers in the purportedly modern society that Saudi Arabia has become continue to suffer extreme forms of labor exploitation that sometimes rise to slavery-like conditions. Their lives are further complicated by deeply rooted gender, religious, and racial discrimination.

  • No Rest

    Abuses Against Child Domestics in El Salvador

    Tens of thousands of girls in El Salvador work as domestics, a form of labor that makes them particularly vulnerable to physical abuse and sexual harassment.

  • Women's Work

    Discrimination Against Women in the Ukrainian Labor Force

    Gender discrimination in Ukraine is cutting women out of the work force while the Ukrainian government is doing nothing to stop the problem. This 52-page report describes how Ukrainian employers discriminate against women job seekers in the way they announce vacancies and interview applicants.

  • Borderline Slavery

    Child Trafficking In Togo

    West African governments are failing to address a rampant traffic in child labor that could worsen with the region’s growing AIDS crisis, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today.

  • Violence against Child Domestic Workers

    More girls are employed in domestic work than in any other form of child labor. They are exploited and abused on a routine basis, yet are nearly invisible among child laborers. They work alone in individual households, hidden from public scrutiny, their lives controlled by their employers.

  • From The Household To The Factory

    Sex Discrimination in the Guatemalan Labor Force

    Women in Guatemala's largest female-dominated labor sectors face persistent sex discrimination and abuse, Human Rights Watch charges in this report.

  • Unequal Protection:

    The State Response to Violent Crime on South African Farms

    The South African government is failing to adequately protect residents of commercial farming areas from violent crime, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today. Black farm residents are most severely affected by this failure, and black women are most vulnerable of all, Human Rights Watch said.

  • Hidden in the Home

    Abuse of Domestic Workers with Special Visas in the United States

    The special visas granted to foreigners who work as household domestics in the U.S. leave them vulnerable to serious abuse, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today.

  • Owed Justice

    Thai Women Trafficked into Debt Bondage in Japan

    Thousands of Thai women are "trafficked" every year into Japan, where many of them endure slavery-like conditions in the Japanese sex industry, Human Rights Watch said in a this new report.