Abu Dhabi officials refute worker exploitation claims

Officials overseeing Abu Dhabi’s $27bn Saadiyat Island project have refuted claims that workers on the island continue to face exploitation by recruitment agencies and the UAE construction companies who employ them.

Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) has rejected findings of a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that says Asian workers on the landmark tourism development have been exploited by unscrupulous recruiters in their home countries.

The report says that many workers on Saadiyat Island have borrowed money from relatives, sold their homes, or taken out loans at high interest rates to pay dishonest recruiters when they agreed to emigrate to work in Abu Dhabi.

In a written response, TDIC said the report made “misleading assertions and false assumptions” and that HRW used “questionable methodology and flawed research”.

“TDIC agrees a fee structure for adequate compensation with each agency and should any worker reveal they have been charged ‘visa-fees’ or any other disbursement by an agency, TDIC will take appropriate action under its agreement with the said agency,” it added.

The government-owned developer of Saadiyat Island asserts that it only employs reputable recruitment agencies and that it contractually obliges those firms to ensure no charges are levied on workers.

Embassy officials from the home countries of Asian labourers told HRW their hands are tied unless workers have written contracts from labour supply agencies. Only two of the 94 Saadiyat Island workers HRW spoke to had such contracts.

Saadiyat Island is at the centre of Abu Dhabi’s efforts to transform itself into a cultural hub and has attracted a host of international names, including the Guggenheim, New York University (NYU) and the Louvre.

International institutions planning to open branches on the island should insist on enforceable contractual guarantees that construction companies will protect workers’ fundamental rights on their projects, HRW said.

Workers interviewed by the group said that they have been paid as little as 50 percent of what the agencies in their home countries had promised. Overtime pay, vacation days and other benefits were also greatly reduced.

Highly indebted upon their arrival and often illiterate, they had little power to bargain over the terms of the contracts they are handed after landing in the UAE, HRW concluded.

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