"Rights group finds abusive conditions for migrants working on UAE renewables,"

Migrants working on renewable energy projects in the United Arab Emirates say they are the victims of abusive conditions that could amount to forced labour, an investigation by a human rights group has found. 

Equidem interviewed 34 migrant workers from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa employed in the supply chain of 10 major renewable energy developers mostly from Europe and the Gulf States, which operate solar and wind projects in the UAE.

They worked for 14 local subcontracting companies, including renewables specialists such as solar installers and technicians, and firms providing services such as transport, security and cleaning...

Mustafa Qadri, chief executive of UK-based Equidem, told Climate Home News the findings were “shocking” for a “high-tech sector” responsible for “some of the most sought-after investment opportunities in the global market”...

The investigation unmasks a sector characterised by multiple layers of outsourcing, where contractual ties between workers, subcontractors and major renewable energy developers are rarely disclosed.

This “blind spot” increases the risk of abuse, Isobel Archer of BHRRC told Climate Home.

BHRRC reviewed publicly available governance policies of the 27 largest renewable energy developers in the Gulf region, including French companies EDF and TotalEnergies, Chinese firm Jinko Power, the UAE’s state-owned Masdar and Shell...

“Given the Gulf region’s record on human rights abuses, companies operating in this field must conduct heightened human-rights due diligence, assess and mitigate the risk their operations pose to migrant workers in their value chains,” said Archer.

“We have to push for a fast transition to renewables. But the so-called creation of green jobs doesn’t give [companies] a free pass to ignore the rights of the most vulnerable in the supply chain,” she added...