Around the world... millions of construction workers are still on the job [during the COVID-19 pandemic], caught between risking their health and losing their livelihoods...

“Construction has been deemed an essential industry in the UAE and protections for non-citizens are being rolled back through allowances for employers to cut workers’ wages,” says Isobel Archer [BHRRC]... measures in the UAE call for obtaining the mutual consent of the employee, already-vulnerable migrant workers have little power to negotiate...

seven of 14 construction companies surveyed by BHRRC on what steps they are taking to protect migrant workers did not respond, and none of those that did had adequate plans in place.