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‘We lie on the floor till someone buys us’: shocking allegations of UAE agencies’ abuse of domestic workers (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 11 months ago by NightOwl@lemm.ee to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 40 points 11 months ago

…are people seriously just finding out that the UAE effectively practices slave labor…?

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 18 points 11 months ago

I remember reading a statistic that there are probably more slaves alive today than there ever existed in history.

https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200

[-] ink@r.nf 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

People are bombarded with propaganda telling them who's good and bad. If US supports an authoritarian nation for its own interest, everything will be censored or given very little engagement so it doesn't get the global coverage. But if it supports a genocidal state, they'd make sure most people would be supporting it.

[-] qooqie@lemmy.world 39 points 11 months ago

I’m not really shocked by any human rights abuse coming out of the Middle East tbh. Most of those countries are still somehow theocracies, and that will never be good for easily abused and exploited groups.

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world -3 points 11 months ago

Religion of peace that condones slavery

[-] burningmatches@feddit.uk 8 points 11 months ago

There are almost as many westerners in the UAE as there are Emiratis. They are all participants in the exploitation.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 9 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Women seeking jobs as domestic workers in the UAE allege they are being detained and abused in squalid accommodation, while recruiters sell them over apps and social media platforms to household employers, according to interviews and documents seen by the Guardian.

In a series of interviews conducted over several years, 14 women from east Africa and the Philippines recounted their experiences with recruitment agencies, including alleging they were denied food, held captive and treated violently.

The Guardian has also seen evidence that the women are being marketed in an “exploitative” way reminiscent of slavery, according to one expert, with employers charged less for the services of black domestic workers and being told they do not even need to provide them with proper bedrooms.

The Guardian has located dozens of these adverts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, where women’s photos are displayed, alongside their personal information, where prospective buyers leave comments on the pages and inquire about prices.

All of these adverts were posted by recruitment agencies that had been awarded a licence to operate from the UAE government, and are supposedly certified as companies that protect the rights of the employers and domestic workers.

“UAE labour law mandates that all employees must have paid leave, rest days, medical insurance, accommodation, meals, possession of their personal IDs, and access to free-of-charge legal support.

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