Gulf: Indian workers allegedly file one labour complaint each day on average, indicating widespread abuse & signs of forced labour
"Indian Workers In The Gulf File 1 Labour Complaint A Day, On Average"
… Paulson had migrated to Qatar in 2011. He joined as an excavator operator for a monthly salary of $486 (equivalent to about Rs 26,000 back then) at Bin Omran Trading and Co… He was in the team that built Al Bayt Stadium, which hosted the FIFA 2022 opening match…
… We worked for 11 hours every day, but were paid for only 8 hours, and the lunch break was only 15 minutes…
… India governs migration with a 40-year-old Emigration Act which leaves the migrant worker at risk…
IndiaSpend reached out to the Ministry of External Affairs for comment…
… lack of effective pre-departure programmes, which is the first stage of migration, leads to trouble for migrant workers…
Since 2019, till June 30, 2023, the Indian embassies in Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia together received 48,095 labour complaints from the Indian migrant workers.
Kuwait topped the list with 23,020 complaints, followed by Saudi Arabia with 9,346 complaints…
The Indian embassy in Kuwait lists non-payment of wages, unfair working conditions (including lack of proper food) and harassment as the most common complaints from Indian migrant workers…
[The Resource Centre previously invited Bin Omran to respond to these allegations in March 2022; it did not.]