Violence Against Migrants: August Roundup
An overwhelming number of suicides and attempted suicides have once again occurred in the Gulf this month. In Kuwait, an Indian maid attempted suicide by slitting her wrists in her employer’s bathroom....
View ArticleNew report on Migrants in Yemen and October Roundup
[Previous Migrant Rights reports on African migrants in Yemen can be found here.] A new report from Yemen highlights the struggles African migrants face on the Northern Yemen-Saudi Arabian border. The...
View ArticleMigrant Abuse: November Roundup
Though several new labor agreements were reached this November, the month remains characterized by several atrocities against migrant workers. Below we recapitulate the select cases registered in...
View ArticleManolo Abella Speaks
Below is the first installment of a series of cross-posts from DiamondMinds, a portal created by Chanzo Greenidge, Ph.D, to facilitate multidisciplinary discourse on migrant issues. This interview was...
View ArticleMigrant Abuse: February Roundup
Negligence in safety precautions caused several fatalities and injuries this month. Two 21-year old migrant workers died from asphyxiation while performing maintenance on a water tank at an Emrati...
View ArticleMigrants Accused of aiding Political Enemies
Following the turmoil in Egypt, Gulf media outlets have have scapegoated migrants as ‘fifth column’ elements supporting and funding the Muslim Brotherhood. The controversial Kuwaiti newspaper...
View ArticleTrivializing Humanity: On Publishing Images of Deceased Migrant Workers
Arab Times Online recently published disturbing photographs of two deceased migrant domestic workers. Both deaths appear related to their employment; one photo shows a Filipina woman after she jumped...
View ArticleThe "AIDS Maid" and Other Sad Tales
Absurd, fear-mongering stories have become a regular feature in Gulf media. Both the protagonists and the media outlets that uncritically publish (and sometimes purposefully distort) their tales...
View ArticleVoid in coverage of Kuwait’s suicides
Migrant suicides are incredibly frequent in the Gulf, but Migrant Rights tries to avoid merely delineating list after list of their occurrences; deaths are more than mere statistics, despite the...
View ArticleSri Lankan President Rajapaksa to Meet With Gulf Heads of State Next Week
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is set to participate in the first Asian Corporation Dialogue Summit in Kuwait on the 16 and 17 of October. The summit is aimed at “consolidate[ing] Asia’s...
View ArticleKuwaiti Columnist Blames Migrants for the Failure of Social Services
A recent Arab Times poll probing attitudes towards Kuwait’s migrant policies revealed that 54% of respondents expected Kuwait to drastically reduce the number of migrant workers in the next 10 years,...
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Kuwaiti Police Humiliate Arrested Migrants
The migrants’ faces in these images above are blurred by Migrant-Rights.org.The two photos above recently went viral in social media and messaging apps in Kuwait. The photos depict Kuwaiti policemen...
View ArticleNew UAE-Oman Visa System Targets Migrants
Thousands of migrants working in the emirate of Al-Ain commute from Oman because of the cheaper housing; a two-bedroom apartment in Oman’s Buraimi area costs an average of Dh 12,000 per year while a...
View ArticleKuwait: 800 Deported Every Year for Tuberculosis
Health regulations in the Gulf continue to target migrant workers, depicting them as the sources of infectious diseases, as part efforts to reduce their numbers. Last June, Kuwait segregated health...
View ArticleNepal’s Kuwaiti Embassy deals with 30 cases a week
This includes 902 rescues in 2011, 812 in 2012 and 186 till April 2013 – and does not include the many cases not reported to the embassy
View Article17% of Kuwaiti migrants abused in 2009
43% of these abused workers wanted to leave their jobs but could not do so as their employers retained their passports
View ArticleKuwait: Migrants Not Allowed to Practice Law
As part of Kuwait’s plans to reduce the foreign population by 100,000 a year, Kuwait’s Social Affairs and Labor Ministry (MOSAL) will now deny all work permits for migrants registered as lawyers. The...
View Article100,000 Undocumented Migrants in Kuwait
According to the German News Agency (DPA), Kuwait’s immigration department is preparing a study to rid the country of undocumented migrants for the coming 10 years. The report quotes the department in...
View ArticleKuwaiti Migrants Endure Delayed Wages & Government Apathy
Over 100 construction workers protested in front of Kuwait’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MoSAL) in February to demand their salaries, which have been withheld for over four months. The MoSAL...
View ArticleRacial Hierarchy and Migration in Kuwait
I moved to Kuwait from the US in 2005 to begin a job at a new American-style university. My first impression of Kuwait, mediated largely by my interactions with the staff, faculty, and student body of...
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