Dubai’s Bonded Labourers
Dec 1st, 2009 by Benjamin Iredale
unfortunately I can’t seem to get Java to embed this video in html so here’s the link: (to skip the ad there will be a button at the top left of the screen)
This video essentially is an documentary footage/interview between VBS TV and reporter Ben Anderson of the BBC which outlines the findings from a longer BBC documentary Ben Anderson had been working on. The point of the BBC documentary was to uncover the living conditions of Bangladesh workers who have been living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). At the start of the video Anderson tells how Bangladeshi workers are offered by local hiring agents a chance to make 300 pounds a month while working in the UAE. This amount of money drives many of them to pay an illegal 2000 pound “booking fee” in order to enter the country and work for one of the local construction companies. Upon arriving in Dubai, workers’ passports are taken away from them and are told that they will be working long hours for around half the promised amount. Many workers at this point are forced to work for the large corporations to try to pay off their massive debt and have no money to send back to their families. Within Dubai as well as within mainstream public opinion, workers are paid much more than they would normally receive at home and gladly work in Dubai, however this is a fabrication for these workers have been forced into indebted (bonded) labour. They cannot leave because they do not have their passports or any money to travel back to Bangladesh and live in misery with no avenue to change their situation. Anderson shows footage of the cramped, squalid, and un-hygenic living conditions these men are forced to endure along with the systematic censorship by companies of this reality. Government is also picked out as being aware of the issues and illegal practices facing these men but only resort to fining the companies. These conditions are never seen by tourists, much less media, and few have spoken out about these horrendous conditions which these Bangladeshi men endure. To make matters worse for these workers, the financial crisis has allowed for companies to illegally not pay their workers and threaten to fire them if they do not work harder. It is shown that some individuals feel an utter sense of loss and hopelessness and do not have any mechanisms in which to struggle against their conditions.
The reason why I picked this video is because it was able to explain the underlying conditions faced by these Bangladeshi workers living around Dubai more concisely than the several other documentaries produced on the subject. Unfortunately the video does not have many interviews with the men in the camps themselves but I believe their general sentiments surrounding the conditions exposed in longer documentaries, and the few short personal interviews available, were relayed effectively by the interviewee. Overall, there is no real way for these workers to have a voice and any interviews were limited clips in the videos I found during my search (none were made by the men themselves, possibly out of fear or lack of resources). I think the issue is important enough to post even with the lack of direct involvement in an attempt to shed light on their situation.
To build on this lack of voice, It is important to note that it is illegal for workers to found or join unions that further silences any attempt by them to improve their living/working conditions. Lacking their passports, the threat of being fired or sent home exacerbates this silence for if they are fired they must work illegally at even lower wages which is risky to do in the UAE. It is also important to note that both the state and the companies are compliant in sustaining these situations of bonded labour. These workers are often described as “illegal workers” (due to their lack of passports) by mainstream media and several demonstrations by workers have received minimal and largely negative coverage.
To expand on the development impact, The flow of capital into Dubai has made the city one of the major centres of development (and overdevelopment) worldwide and with it has come the demand for labour. Much like the situation during the plantation era in the Americas, capitalists have sought out cheap sources of labour in which to build up new economies. In the case of the Americas this came in the form of bonded labour followed quickly by slavery. In the case of Dubai, bonded labour from South Asia has been the solution to Dubai’s labour shortage at the expense of their basic human rights. These workers have been absolutely marginalized within UAE society and have been branded “others” by the native population even though they make up to 85% of the population by some estimates. UAE citizens, although also Muslim, have widely promoted ethnic differences to distinguish, marginalize and ignore the plight of these foreign workers. Development has not occurred evenly within Dubai though, and as the video has shown, the workers have been forced to live in underdeveloped conditions which lack the basic necessities of proper housing, waste management and cooking facilities. In fact, many of the contractors involved are able to increase this uneven development, not only through the redistribution of capital into Dubai’s infrastructure and their pockets, but by removing capital from Bangladeshi families who often have to sell their homes in order to pay the initial 2000 pounds.
As a final note, Ben Anderson mentions the group called Mafiwasti which is the only organization solely dedicated to improving these workers’ conditions for they still have no personal avenue to voice their struggles. Videos can be found on their website here but still seem to focus on interviews with government officials for answers rather than giving a personal voice to the workers. http://www.mafiwasta.com/links.htm
3 Responses to “Dubai’s Bonded Labourers”
Thank you for posting this video. I think this ugly truth is everywhere in ‘developing’ countries.
It is, indeed, very heartbreaking to know the that the places ‘we’ enjoy and see as ‘paradise’are being build by, as Ben Anderson said, slaves. I was wondering, what Ben Anderson’s profession is and what’s his knowledge of development, over exploitation, etc… Also, I’m wondering to how many people this video was delivered. Who watched it?
Ben Anderson did a great job, by revealing the hidden situation and make a space for their voices to be heard.
I was a little bit shocked by the fact that, only one organization, Mafiwasti, responded to his request. Ben Anderson, also said “..not even Amnesty…”, which seemed to me he had a great expectation from them. Frankly speaking, I thought of Amnesty international as one of the ‘father’ human right, development NGOs. Why they are not even concerned about this situation? Don’t get me wrong I am not blaming Amnesty, I believe this situation would be expected from most top, big named NGOs.
This make me think twice, whether NGOs are effective…
Lastly, I want to mention here, while they were talking about the un-hygienic restroom situation; the interviewer commented “.. it must be really bad, because you live in ALL THE BAD PLACES, LIKE CONGO, AFGHANISTAN…” I cannot understand what he mean by “bad place”? or is it leading to the idea of ‘us’ as a great, everything is right place and ‘the others/them’ are bad, and everything ‘there’ is wrong?
I was not that surprised by the conditions and labor exploitation situations. I am from Mongolia and I’ve seen people living that life basically everyday. Moreover, I know directly and indirectly tons of Mongolians, who are illegal immigrants. It is sad to watch them work almost 24 hours a day,getting a very low salary and being labor wise exploited. Why they are becoming illegal? Every Mongolian (I do not have a right to speak for them and I do not want to generalize), including me, think of America, Canada, EU countries as a ‘paradise’. people think that if they can cross the boarder, they can live a happy/full life and money is growing everywhere. I guess it is a discourse. I can go on and on with this topic but I will stop here.
It was baffling to me to read about this, I have read many stories/historical facts of when traditional slavery was abolished by the large world powers that many of the freed slaves became “indentured servants” to whomever they had worked for before. Basically a easy way of creating slaves without having to worry about international human rights laws. However I did not realize that in a place that is really putting itself in the international public spotlight with the high profile construction and its marketing ploys that attempt to attract so many celebrities, that a blatant disregard for human rights is happening.
I, also like Anu, was shocked that with such a high profile area that only one NGO existed for their protection and help, I wondered for quite sometime afterwards whether or not that had something to do with where the workers were from. Bangladesh is not well known for its forward movement with human rights, maybe the world shows a blind eye because this issue has become tangled in the “oriental” melting pot.
I (also) felt really depressed by how terribly the workers from Bangladesh were treated.
I know it probably seems naive, but I still can’t believe how people in ‘upper’ positions (presumably the people running the companies had a fair amount of status, wealth, and power) can bring themselves to impose conditions and abuses like this on others.
I’ve heard it said that in cases where oppression occurs, the people who oppress experience a disconnect between themselves and the people they are oppressing (I realise these categories are simplistic and not distinct).* Because the company owners are able to distance themselves from the workers’ situations for example, they do not feel concern for their treatment or well-being. As you touched on in your post, I think racism may also be a major factor in the (conscious or unconscious) justification for this disconnect/distancing. Although you were referring to the general United Arab Emirates population, this can apply to the company owners (who I gathered were mainly from the UK?) as well as the general UAE public.
Something else struck me in the video, which was the fact that there were many shots from Anderson’s documentary footage of human excrement, flies, extremely poor living conditions, and so forth. It reminded me a bit of our class discussion of statements such as when people say that the people in ‘undeveloped’ areas “eat dirt.”
While I think it is important to make this information public, I also wonder whether this type of information can sensationalize and victimize those who are being oppressed, and how one draws a balance, or at one point one draws the line between these two things. In the case of the video, I wondered whether it victimized the Bangladeshi workers by focusing on the negative aspects of their experience. Their circumstances were very negative, however there were many positives about the workers which could have been focused on. I do not think their experiences should be portrayed in an unrealistically positive light. However, to give a couple examples, they may have had coping mechanisms which showed their strengths and hopes, and despite the fact that they were severely oppressed by the companies, I’m sure they still maintained some sense of individual agency. In my opinion it is this sense of agency (however weakened and seemingly distant in certain cases) which is one of the key ingredients which allows people who are marginalized to take actions to change their situation. Let’s hope that any actions the workers and the organizations and people working for the cause take are efficient and effective in remediating the unacceptable conditions the workers experience.
*[I just want to make a note that the “disconnect” between people who are imposing human rights abuses, and the recipients of the abuse does not excuse their (the people who are imposing abuse) actions in any way.]