Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East, ‎pdf 4.1 MB

and we will find him a new job”. 247 Indeed, in 2006 the ministry issued a
decree stipulating that if a worker discovers during his first three months in the
country that no real job exists for him, he may change employer. 248 However,
workers caught in such situations do not always turn to the official channels
for help. An official from the Ministry of Interior in Kuwait commented
that “workers think they can earn a lot of money, especially doing freelance
work. They do not always come to us or their embassies when they have
a problem.” 249 The Dubai police in the United Arab Emirates also stated
that they rarely received complaints from migrant workers, adding: “We visit
worksites, but we do not find any coercion and do not receive complaints.”
3.3.3. Work and life under duress and impossibility of leaving
Many of the migrant workers interviewed, irrespective of whether they
had taken part in the recruitment process voluntarily, found themselves in
degrading working and living situations imposed on them by the use or
threat of force or penalty, amounting to conditions of work and life under
duress. 250 This section illustrates the different forms of exploitation practised
with examples from the interviews.
Forced overtime
Several workers interviewed complained of being forced to work overtime,
often unpaid, above the national limits. In the UAE, Pakistani workers
employed at a food company said they had to work two Fridays a month,
and that “if the supervisor asks you, you can’t say no”. The degree of control
that employers have over their workers was also apparent to the researchers
in Kuwait, where a Filipino maintenance worker said: “Sometimes I have to
do overtime because the kafeel tells me I must obey.” A garment worker in
Jordan also explained that those in the factory “are obliged to do two hours of
overtime per day because everyone is doing it”. An owner of a garment factory
who was also interviewed in Jordan admitted that this could be a problem in
some factories, as “the supervisor forces the worker to work overtime in order
to produce more”.
247
Interview with an official from the Ministry of Labour, UAE, 2 Feb. 2012.
248
Interview with an official from the Ministry of Labour, UAE, 2 Feb. 2012.
249
Interview with an official from the Ministry of Interior, Kuwait, 27 Mar. 2012.
250
Work under duress entails an excessive volume of work or tasks that are beyond
what can reasonably be expected within the framework of the national labour laws. Life
under duress refers to situations where an employer imposes on a worker degrading
living conditions and limits freedom of movement and communication. ILO: Hard
to see, harder to count: Survey guidelines to estimate forced labour of adults and children
(Geneva, 2012), p. 14.
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