An excerpt from the OZY -
RISING IN THE MIDDLE EAST: FORCED LABOR FROM AFRICA
By Laura Secorun Palet
It was a Wednesday afternoon in August 2017 and dozens of people were lining up on the platform of Noor Bank metro station, in Dubai. As the train approached, a man jumped in front of it.
The police report revealed he was a 36-year-old migrant worker from Uganda. His embassy said he was likely “frustrated” by poor working conditions, a local daily wrote a few paragraphs on the case, then the news moved on.
But the suicide only punctuated a widespread new pattern of labor exploitation of thousands of African migrant workers in the Persian Gulf States. A recent report by a Ugandan parliamentary committee revealed that, in 2017, at least 35 Ugandans killed themselves in the United Arab Emirates — mostly as a result of unpaid wages and abuse.
While continued international pressure on the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar has managed to improve the working conditions of many South Asian and Southeast Asian migrants, recruitment agencies are now moving on to Africa.
http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/rising-in-the-middle-east-forced-labor-from-africa/82554?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01072018&variable=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610
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