Beirut, Nov. 21, 2023 – Migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates are exposed to escalating climate risks, especially working in extreme heat without adequate protections.
According to the Human Rights Watch the situation can cause chronic harms to their health.
It added that migrant workers face other widespread labor abuses like wage theft and exorbitant recruitment fees that have restricted their abilities to support their families back home, including during extreme weather events often linked to climate change.
These abuses are occurring in a context where the UAE and other historic emitters are fueling the climate crisis.
The UAE is one of the world’s largest oil producers and among the highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases.
Governments should pressure the UAE, the host of the upcoming annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, (COP28), to strengthen its labour protections for migrant workers, who constitute over 88 percent of the country’s population, to address these abuses.
Governments most responsible for climate change, like the UAE, as well as major private oil companies, should offer support, including climate financing, to communities in climate-vulnerable countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan that have been hardest hit by climate change.
All states and companies should phase out fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis.
“UAE-based migrant workers and their communities back home are among those contributing least to the climate crisis, yet are often the ones who have the greatest exposure to climate harms and are struggling to deal with them,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
“Not only is the UAE contributing to the climate crisis as one of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, but its deep-rooted labor abuses and inadequate heat protections contribute to climate injustice in multiple ways.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 73 current and former UAE-based workers and 42 families of current migrant workers between May and September 2023 from Pakistan[i], Bangladesh[ii], and Nepal[iii].
Ninety-four interviewees live in or are from areas already facing the devastating consequences of the climate crisis, with scientific studies linking extreme weather events like floods, cyclones and salinization of agricultural lands to climate change.
In addition, former and current outdoor workers interviewed were working in jobs like construction, cleaning, agriculture, animal herding, and security, and were often exposed to the UAE’s extreme heat, which is also inincreasing due to climate change.
Extreme heat is a serious health hazard. It can be fatal or have lifelong consequences. Heat can exacerbate pre-existing conditions, impair cognitive function, and increase the risk of workplace injuries. It can also cause heat rash, cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.
Yet, the UAE has failed to protect workers from these dangers and continues to rely on arbitrary, pre-defined midday work bans in summer months instead of more effective risk-based standards, such as the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) index, and applying evidence-based guidelines that impose work stoppages when conditions become dangerous.
“I have fainted multiple times due to the heat,” said a security guard who works outdoors. “I sweat profusely, and my face gets completely burnt. The supervisor’s watchful eyes scare us. I had [recruitment] loans to repay, I could not afford to get terminated. So, I pushed myself.”
UAE-based migrant workers are indispensable in advancing the UAE’s adaptation efforts to the country’s increasing extreme heat.
A Pakistani air conditioning (AC) technician now in Pakistan said: “The excessive heat [in UAE] makes living without air conditioning impossible. Repairing units is akin to an emergency. Clients demand swift repairs.”
He said he worked 14-hour days in the heat without health insurance, had no paid sick leave, and faced additional salary deductions for the days he was too sick to work.
The UAE authorities are externalizing climate risks to migrant workers, who are disproportionately exposed to extreme heat, without ensuring adequate protections and by sending workers home who face serious health harms without remedy, Human Rights Watch said.
Many studies have shown higher incidence of kidney injuries in outdoor workers exposed to hot environments, including among migrant worker returnees, which can be devastating for migrant workers and their families.
A Nepali dialysis patient who returned from the UAE with end-stage renal failure said, “If the Nepal government hadn’t offered free dialysis, patients like us without money wouldn’t survive.” The remaining costs associated with treatment can be substantial.
Beyond inadequate heat protections, migrant workers are also subject to serious labor abuses like wage theft and exorbitant recruitment fees which affect their ability to send home remittances.
At the heart of enabling such abuses lies the inherently abusive sponsorship, or kafala system, that ties their visas to their employers and makes them highly vulnerable, including restricting job mobility and confiscating passports.
The UAE also bans trade unions, which inhibits workers’ ability to demand stronger labor protections.
Human Rights Watch research and academic studies have demonstrated that remittances have long been a critical income source for migrant workers’ families. For instance, Bangladesh and Pakistan are among the top 10 recipients globally of remittances.
Remittances take on particular significance during emergencies and economic downturns, including during climate-related extreme weather events.
They can help reduce migrant workers’ families’ vulnerability to economic shocks and meet basic needs like food. Remittances, however, are not a panacea nor a substitute for states’ responsibilities, as well as for historical and major greenhouse gas emitters, to support communities heavily impacted by the climate crisis.
Because many workers fall victim to common abuses like exorbitant recruitment fees, contract violations, fraudulent visas, and wage theft, they are further limited in sending home critical remittance payments.
