Bahrain

Bahrain announced the end of the Flexi-Permit programme in October 2022, five years after its introduction. The Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) subsequently launched a new “Labour Registration Program” in its place. The program is available only to former Flexi-Permit holders and migrant workers who became irregular before its announcement on 27 October. The scheme allows for migrants to work without sponsors, but unlike the Flexi, they can only do so in the professions listed on their new ‘vocational work permits’, which are processed by private registration centres.  Though the initiative aims to regularise migrant workers, the Bahraini government has simultaneously stepped up arrest and deportation campaigns.

Moreover, efforts to address the conditions which often push migrants into an irregular status remain inadequate. The final stage of the Wage Protection System was introduced in January 2022, but actual safeguards against wage theft and remedies remain weak. Construction firm Abdulla H Al Derazi & Sons Co WLL is the latest in a slew of companies abandoning their workers in Bahrain. The company’s 62 employees are owed between 6 and 12 months' worth of wages and end-of-service benefits, and were stuck living without electricity or gas at the company’s accommodation. Their experiences mirror the fate of G P Zachariades (GPZ) workers, who were stranded for months before returning home without their full dues. One former GPZ employee, Muhammad Elias, died a year after leaving Bahrain empty-handed. His due wages would have covered the cost of a life-saving surgery.

Additionally, recent data released by Bahrain's Social Insurance Organisation (SIO) reveal an extreme disparity between migrant workers’ contributions to the unemployment fund and their ability to actually access these benefits. Amid poor labour practices, private sector profits are soaring while migrants struggle with low wages and rising living costs. The lack of access to social protections leaves workers even more vulnerable.

Kuwait

Discriminatory policies in Kuwait continue to inform poor public policymaking that harms migrant workers most. Non-Kuwaiti residents are now required to pay additional fees when purchasing medicine, on top of the healthcare and insurance fees they already pay. The move has already resulted in a sharp decline in migrants seeking treatments in medical centres. The ministry has also restricted some medications to nationals only, without specifying which. Lower-income migrant workers in particular have been targeted by officials: rather than ensuring affordable housing is available to the country’s workforce, authorities regularly shut off power to unapproved “bachelor” accommodations.   

Migrants are scapegoated for other public issues as well, including the country’s ongoing transportation crisis. Non-nationals face ever-increasing arbitrary restrictions to obtaining drivers’ licences, and have virtually no other viable means of transportation. Taxis and ride-share services are prohibitively expensive, while the county’s only form of public transportation hasn’t seen investment in over 40 years. 

Poorly designed Kuwaitisation schemes have also led to the termination of hundreds of non-Kuwaiti public sector workers without end-of-service benefits. Egyptian migrant workers who account for roughly a quarter of the Kuwaiti workforce have been among the most affected by these efforts. Kuwait has recently imposed new restrictions on the recruitment of Egyptian workers as well.

Wage theft is also on the rise in the domestic work sector, forcing workers into an irregular status and leading to an increase in the number of undocumented domestic workers. In 2021, nearly 50% of the 151,690 ‘residency violators’ in the country were domestic workers. The country faces a shortage of domestic workers and recruitment fees are soaring. 

Authorities have also ramped up arrest and deportation campaigns against migrants with irregular status. The Public Authority for Manpower introduced a new service through the Asshal app to report the ‘absconding’ of migrant workers who have entered Kuwait with work permits but have not completed residency formalities.

Oman

The situation of domestic workers in Oman came under the spotlight this year following a number of reports exposing rampant recruitment fraud and exploitation, particularly among Sierra Leonean, other African nationals, Indian, and Sri Lankan women. Unlike most other Gulf states, Oman has no domestic workers' law nor does it incorporate domestic workers into its labour law. Many of these workers are brought into Oman on tourist visas, rather than work visas, leaving them without even the meagre protections the law does provide. This abuse of Oman’s visit system affects migrant workers from all sectors, who are often promised formal jobs only to find no job when they arrive, or otherwise forced to work without documentation. 

While the domestic worker sector remains largely unregulated, Oman has issued a number of reforms to its larger labour market. In July 2022, the Ministry of Labour issued Ministerial Decision 235/2022 to localise 207 jobs; positions formerly held by migrant workers, such as security guards and bus drivers, can now only be held by citizens. The move came as part of a number of reforms to encourage Omanisation, which included a large reduction in migrant work visa fees for companies that comply with Omanisation quotas. Oman has also conducted regular inspection campaigns to deport migrant workers with irregular status, and those working illegally in the fishing sector. (Read our previous white paper on the fishing sector in the GCC here)

Qatar

Despite labour reforms over the past 12 years, workers in Qatar remain voiceless and invisible. In the run-up to the World Cup, workers continued to report long work hours without adequate overtime compensation, non-payment of wages, and the misuse of project visas. A number of worker protests have resulted in deportations. Moreover, workers were forced to return home before the end of their contracts and with pending dues. Some were also told they were on “long leave,” and did not receive their end-of-service benefits, but remain unsure if they can return to Qatar post-World Cup. 

Earlier this year, Qatar Vaccination Centre staff members employed on temporary contracts complained they were not paid for over two months. Uber and Careem drivers in Qatar also face systematic exploitation as they are excluded from labour protections by both limousine companies that sponsor them and the ride-hailing companies themselves. Migrant workers and recruitment agents from Kenya say the cost of recruitment to the Gulf and Qatar in particular has risen dramatically in the last five year, with consultants recruiting for Qatar-based companies demanding exorbitant fees.

With respect to domestic worker recruitment, the Ministry of Labour set a price cap on recruitment fees based on country of origin.  While controlling fees is important, failing to break-down of the costs to explain variations between countries feeds into stereotypes that link workers' values to their nationality. The Ministry also increased the probation period for domestic workers from three months to nine months—another unclear regulation that may further increase workers’ vulnerability.

Qatar also introduced a compulsory health insurance system for all non-Qatari residents, including visitors and those employed in the public and private sectors.
 

Saudi Arabia

Non-nationals in Saudi Arabia are under pressure from expanding Saudisation programmes and concurrent efforts to reduce the expat population. An estimated half a million migrants in Jeddah have been evicted to make room for the city’s developments. 

The country has launched intensive campaigns against migrant workers with irregular status, including those working for employers other than their sponsors. Campaigns have also focused on the border area, primarily affecting Ethiopian and Yemeni migrants, who have been detained en masse, subject to gross abuse, and deported without individualised assessment. The mass arrests and deportations have continued despite the Kingdom’s recent entry into an agreement with the IOM to support migrants and displaced people in Yemen.

Saudi authorities have expanded the conditions under which domestic workers can switch employers without their current employers’ consent. However, the circumstances remain limited and difficult for domestic workers to access in practice. The experiences of Kenyan domestic workers in the country—which include rape, abuse, neglect, and death threats— reflect the massive protection gaps that remain in the sector. Nonetheless, the Kingdom continues to sign new and updated agreements to recruit domestic workers, including from the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Migrant workers in other sectors also continue to face the consequences of the chasm between law and implementation. Saudi Arabia has the highest mortality rate and the highest number of suicides in the Gulf among Nepali workers, and authorities have failed to investigate the underlying causes of these deaths. Issues of wage theft remain rampant, with commitments to resolve older cases falling by the wayside. 

Moreover, false huroob (absconding) cases are on the rise, despite reforms to the Kafala system that have purported to increase employment mobility for migrant workers. Though the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development updated regulations relating to abstention from work and the right to transfer employment, they remain largely unclear. The system continues to be rife for corruption and exploitation.

                          

UAE

The UAE’s new domestic workers law (Federal Decree-Law No. 9 of 2022) came into force on December 15, 2022. The law contains many of the same provisions as the previous law, with a few significant changes. Despite some progress, there are still significant protection gaps, including the lack of a minimum wage, restricted sick leave options, no stated right to mobility outside the house, and long working hours. Under separate regulations, employers of domestic workers can ‘opt in’ to the Wage Protection System (WPS). Given that it remains voluntary and that the WPS is only as effective as the wider regulatory environment, the move seems especially perfunctory. 

Domestic workers are also excluded from the UAE’s new unemployment scheme, which is mandatory for all other public and private sector workers and will come into effect on January 1, 2023. The scheme provides limited cash benefits for the first three months of unemployment, after 12 months of enrolment. Though the expansion of social protections to migrants is an important and welcome move, barriers to accessing the scheme’s benefits disregard workers’ lack of power under the Kafala System. 

Ugandan workers report paying some of the highest recruitment fees to work in the UAE, compared to other Gulf states. Over 1,500 Uganda workers, the vast majority of them domestic workers who left exploitative situations, sought repatriation support this year. UAE authorities announced travel restrictions on Ugandan and other African nationals due to misuse of visit visas.

The country also reduced fees for issuing work permits for expatriate employees to incentivise companies that surpass nationalisation quotas, alongside steep penalties for noncompliance. 

Reporting on the UAE remains restricted by low press freedoms and the expansion of cybercrime laws. A Ugandan journalist deported from the country over a decade ago reflects on the stories he was forced to censor, including those on the deaths of migrant workers. Despite the constraining environment, Deliveroo and Talabat riders launched a rare strike in protest of reduced wages. Following viral videos of the protests on social media, the delivery app companies were forced to reconsider the new policy.