UAE

While we are not against progress, innovation and growth, we feel that during all the excitement about the opening of the the Burj Khalifa (formerly known as Burj Dubai), it is forgotten that those who built it, mainly south-Asian migrant workers, have paid a high price for this ambitious project. Those workers toiled 12 hour [...]

After spending another year documenting abuses of migrant workers in the Middle East, it’s time that we look back at the most significant, influential and important stories that we’ve covered.
1. Death of Domestic Migrant Workers in Lebanon
This story is significant not just because of the sheer number of deaths and their alarming frequency, but also [...]

Al-Jazeera English aired a story today about the abuse domestic workers suffer in the Gulf. The report included an interview with a women who came to work as a maid in the UAE from East Africa (her accent is Ethiopian, as far as I can tell). The maid was daily abused by her female employer [...]

From Techabia:

President Barrack Obama has announced his support to an agreement between the USA and the UAE whereby nuclear energy technology would be shared amongst the two nations. H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan has also released a statement.
Both letters can be read Here.
What reprecussions do you think this will have to the GCC [...]

This week we’re talking to the editor of our Migrant-Rights.org website, which aims to explore, expose, and find ways to improve the horrific conditions of migrant workers in the Middle East, specifically the Gulf.
This is one of the most ignored topics in the region despite it being by far one of the most important. Millions [...]

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This message will be retweeted a few dozen times before the real local outrage begins:

We heard these rumors in the past, but more and more people seem to be confirming that these aren’t just false alarms anymore and that YouTube will actually be banned officially in the UAE. We can’t be totally sure yet until [...]

(Palm Island in Dubai)
A couple of weeks ago I was in New Orleans with my parents at the annual craziness known as Fat Tuesday during Mardi Gras. Besides the excess of everything I saw there including waste, and the nasty black eye I sustained from a large set of beads being thrown on my head [...]

As African nations sell and lease its land, and birthright, to the world’s super-powers, and arguably “dangerous” countries like Saudi Arabia who support Islamic fundamentalism, we are seeing a brand new kind of neo-colonial land-grab, and it scares me.
I’d reported on Galten’s Jatropha seeds for biofuel here, and also on the Israeli conglomerate Ormat, Evogene [...]

This interview was conducted by Sophia Furber, editor of our Migrant Rights website.
Migrant Rights talks to Nick McGeehan, founding member of human rights group Mafiwasta, set up in 2005 to bring to attention abuses of migrant workers in the Gulf.

Mafiwasta currently focuses on the UAE, but hopes to expand its work to other countries in [...]

When we conducted our previous podcast, where several American high students asked us questions in order to learn more about the Middle East for their Global Studies class, some students didn’t have a chance to ask their questions. So I’m now giving others the opportunity to answer these questions as a continuation of that series.
Even [...]