2024 in review

View this email in your browser

Migrant-Rights.org has received
the 2024 Human Rights and Business Award.

The award, granted by the Human Rights and Business Award Foundation, recognises “outstanding work by human rights defenders addressing the human rights impacts of business.” We are deeply honoured to have been considered alongside incredible organisations including 7amleh and the Global Echo Litigation Center.

2024 has been a year of significant developments across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, with labour reforms and policy shifts shaping the lives of the region’s 31 million migrant workers.

In Oman, cross-border trafficking has surged amid weak regulations on domestic work, while stricter Omanisation policies have been enforced in the private sector. Bahrain has reduced its already-limited maternity care provisions for migrant women and eased penalties for labour violations. Post World Cup, Qatar’s reforms have stagnated, leaving workers with diminished protections. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s successful bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup and its ongoing mega projects have drawn attention to the inability of its labour reforms initiative to adequately safeguard the rights of its migrant workforce. Kuwait’s easing of family visa restrictions marked a welcome change for many, but xenophobic tensions and discriminatory policies persist, including those that led to the death of 49 migrants in the Mangaf fire. The UAE’s amnesty campaign, though extending a lifeline for some, forecasts intensified migration raids in 2025.

While there have been positive developments—such as the inclusion of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia’s wage protection system and improved government regulation of end-of-service benefits in Bahrain—weak enforcement and limited access to justice undermine these efforts across the region, especially for live-in domestic workers whose access to mobility and communication are often restricted.

From ambiguous reforms to sporadic advancements, these reports underscore the urgent need for sustained advocacy and accountability in the region. Here’s an in-depth look at the trends, policies, and lived experiences of labour and migration across the Gulf this year.

Latest News

Oman

Oman Requires Employers with 50+ Workers to Establish a Grievance System for Workers

Oman’s Ministry of Labour has issued a new ministerial decision (No. 617/2024) requiring employers with 50 or more workers to set up a formal grievance process to address worker concerns. Under the new grievance system, workers are able to submit complaints or grievances about employer decisions for internal resolution. The new decision lacks provisions to protect workers from retaliation for filing complaints through this system, and does not address confidentiality or anonymity. Additionally, it does not establish procedures to eliminate language barriers in the complaint process.

Oman Temporarily Halts Migrant Worker Permits in Select Professions for Six Months

In recent years, Oman has adopted a more aggressive approach to discourage employers from hiring migrant workers from abroad, aiming to localise jobs for Omani nationals. While the Sultanate has previously banned migrant workers from high-paying professions and positions, its strategy for lower-paying jobs has primarily involved temporary bans on hiring foreign workers.

Oman Eases Penalties on Businesses for Labour Law Violations

Oman’s Ministry of Labour recently issued two resolutions enabling employers to pay reduced fines to avoid legal action and authorising regulators to prohibit employers from issuing or renewing work permits for migrant workers.

قراءة باللغة العربية

Despite rumours of a new domestic workers law in the works, Oman continues to hold one of the weakest protections for domestic workers in the region. Reported cases of trafficking of domestic workers between the Oman and UAE borders spiked this year; workers say they were tricked into accepting work in the UAE, only to be taken to Oman, where there are scarce protections for the sector.

Saudi Arabia

A wave of reforms this year coincides with intensified scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s labour conditions, brought into focus by its ambitious mega projects and successful bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup. Our previous newsletter provides a summary of our recent reporting and insights into what this monumental event — and Saudi’s wider hyper development — might mean for the country’s 11 million migrant workers.

Bahrain

Bahrain Government Restricts Migrant Women’s Access to Public Hospitals for Childbirth in Certain Cases

On 2 September, 2024, Bahrain issued a circular directing all government hospitals to refer non-Bahraini patients to private hospitals or their primary hospitals for delivery. Migrant women in Bahrain already face limited access to postnatal and maternity care. While hospitals are required to admit women in labour in emergency situations regardless of visa status or ability to pay, they cannot obtain birth certificates, travel documents, or immigration clearance for their infants until they settle their hospital debts and provide marriage certificates.

قراءة باللغة العربية

Bahrain Eases Penalties on Employers for Sponsorship Violations

Bahrain’s Labour Market Regulatory Authority introduced a decision allowing employers who hire workers with invalid or expired work permits to pay reduced fines instead of facing criminal charges. Additionally, migrant workers without valid permits can avoid conviction and deportation by paying a fine. While a positive step forward, the decision continues to unfairly hold migrant workers liable for their work permit status, despite the control employers have over cancellation and renewal.

قراءة باللغة العربية

Bahrain Extends Summer Midday Work Ban to Three Months Starting Next Year

The extension of the summer working ban represents progress, but the ban remains tied to arbitrary calendar dates and hours, rather than real-time temperatures. Bahrain’s summer temperatures remain dangerously high outside the ban’s designated hours. Migrant-Rights.org previously reported that extreme temperatures and high humidity levels outside the current ban period continued to expose workers to dangerous heat stress. While the government’s summer ban campaigns focus primarily on construction workers, they exclude the thousands of other workers who continue to toil outdoors in the heat, including security workers, delivery drivers, and petrol station attendants.

قراءة باللغة العربية

Bahrain’s Government Will Now Collect Contributions for Migrant Workers' Indemnity and Disburse Them Directly

Starting in March 2024, Bahrain’s Social Insurance Organisation (SIO) will collect end-of-service contributions from private sector employers of migrant workers and disburse them directly. While this helps address frequent delays or non-payment of benefits by employers, workers must access benefits via the SIO portal, which requires language and digital skills that are not attainable to many. Benefits due before March 2024 remain the employer’s responsibility.

قراءة باللغة العربية

Bahrain Updates Visit and Dependent Visas to Work Permit Conversion Rules

Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior recently amended regulations concerning visit and dependent visa conversions. As per the new regulations, only sponsored visit visas — as opposed to visas on arrival — can be converted to work permits, and they must retain the same sponsor who initially issued the visit visas. The fees for converting visit visas to work permits, visit visas to dependent visas, and dependent visas to work permits have also increased.

قراءة باللغة العربية

UAE

UAE Launches Amnesty for Migrants with Irregular Immigration Status

The UAE, along with other Gulf countries, periodically launches amnesty campaigns to help regularise or facilitate the exit of irregular migrant workers. These campaigns are often presented as a gesture of goodwill towards migrant “violators.” However, these campaigns overlook that many migrants do not end up undocumented by choice but rather as a result of the Kafala labour migration system, which can easily push them into irregular status.

The amnesty programme, allowing non-citizens with irregular immigration status to regularise their status or depart without penalties, was initially set for two months starting on 1 September 2024 and then extended till the end of the year due to high demand from migrants seeking to regularise their status, as well as to offer more opportunities to those facing legal obstacles or challenges in securing documentation on time.

The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs & Port Security (ICP) has announced that it plans to launch extensive campaigns following the new deadline to clamp down on migrants with undocumented status.

قراءة باللغة العربية

UAE Amends Specific Labour Law Provisions Concerning Dispute Resolution

The UAE has amended its labour dispute procedures, increasing fines for various violations such as employing workers without proper permits, hiring or bringing workers into the country without providing them with a job, and engaging in fictitious recruitment. The new amendment also permits employers to make partial payments to avoid legal action. Additionally, it transfers jurisdiction for certain violations involving domestic workers.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation became authorised to issue final executive decisions concerning individual labour disputes valued at AED 50,000 (US$ 13,613) or less.

قراءة باللغة العربية

Kuwait

Kuwait Drops University Degree Requirement for Family Visa Sponsorship

Following the resumption of family (dependent) visas for migrant residents in January 2024, Kuwait’s government dropped the university degree requirements for the visa. It more recently eliminated the requirement that migrants over 60 and without a university degree would need to pay an annual fee of KD 250 and obtain private health insurance.

The previous conditions for applying for family visas are still in effect. This includes the KD 800 salary requirement and the exemption from the salary requirement for sponsoring children under the age of five who are living or born in Kuwait.

Family visas remain restricted primarily to male migrants. However, migrant mothers can sponsor their children for family visas only in cases where the husband is deceased, divorced, or has permanently left the country, leaving his wife and children behind.

قراءة باللغة العربية

Kuwait temporarily allows domestic workers to transfer to the private sector

The Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) in Kuwait has recently announced that domestic workers would be able to transfer their sponsorship to private sector employers under certain conditions. This decision was effective from 14 July 2024 until 12 September 2024. Over 55,000 applications were approved during the period.

Qatar

Two years after hosting the FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar’s labour and immigration reforms have come to a standstill, and some have been scaled back, particularly around domestic workers’ protections. No new legislative changes have been introduced, but processes around job change and access to justice continue to be riddled with barriers.

Dreams Buried: Building 18, Street 644, Al Rayyan, Qatar

I noticed during my walks that I have not seen a female or a child in two weeks. It was a very strange world. By now I was supposed to have done a medical test, and my residence card should have been processed, but I was stuck, and there seemed to be no information coming to us. I spent the next two nights hungry. That’s when it hit me – there was no job.