I saw a documentary where they described the slavery of dubai workers and blamed everything on a lack of unions, regulations, mandatory health insurance, etc.
What’s really going on there?
Who’s to blame?
I’m not sure completely about this situation, but I remember watching a documentary on this, and more than anything else thhe workers complained about not being paid, and not being paid on time, so at the very least their contracts had been violated. I also know the government of India has done very little to assist its citizens in this part of the world, despite the generous benefits it offers its public sector workforce.
i’ve heard rumblings by leftists who try to use Dubai as an example of a free market leading to awful things. i need to check out the documentary, but like many claims by the left, it’s most likely bunk and far more nuanced and complex to take their claims seriously. I haven’t found any evidence of ‘‘slavery’’, but i may be wrong. From what i know workers in these ‘‘camps’’ are paid (not slaves), and they are attracted by secure employment and housing which is paid for by the companies. I read a short Guardian piece which said that many of the migrant workers in Dubai actually pay employment agencies to find them work in the city for construction projects, Now how many ‘‘slaves’’ voluntarily pay money to have a job?
what did you see in the documentary? was your impression that workers voluntarily take up occupation with employers that run these alleged labor camps, and do they voluntarily seek out jobs with no benefits?
If there is any “slavery” I wonder if it isn’t due to immigration laws being manipulated by employers, in which case it’s certainly a government intervention to blame.
Residency in Dubai is tied to an employer needing you there, and so in effect your employer owns the right for you to stay in the country. If on top of that you borrowed money to go work there, and you don’t speak any of the local languages, you are pretty much an indentured servant, if not a slave.
If I remember correctly the worst labor strike occured when the U.S. dollar hit its lows in 2007 and the wages laborers earned (the local currency is tied to the USD) no longer bought much back in their home country. The true issue is that entire families had gone into debt to send one of their sons to work in Dubai, so that they could get out of slavery back home. When that failed, many laborers felt they had disgraced their family and committed suicide.
It comes down to another case of that which is seen and not seen. Although it appears that workers sold themselves into slavery in Dubai, the fact is they are trying to get out of the slavery of their home countries, attempting to swap an impossible situation for marginally better situation. But because journalists won’t go out into the countryside and see the desperation of rural poverty, they blame Dubai.
M ymain problem was when they disallowed israelis to play there.
I’m afraid I can’t remember the documentary, though my suspiscion is the issue is not clear cut and there is state intervention for the firms at the expense of their employees. I’m sure somebody could find out if many of these companies are state owned, but that’s a side issue; my main suspiscion was that the courts of the UAE were not pursuing and prosecuting these contract violations.
I also have the impression that leftists have a very falsely paternalistic, even patronising view of people from the developing world; assuming every contract they engage in they were somehow manipulated into and have to lose out.