UAE- New York University (NYU) said it will compensate thousands of migrant workers who built its new campus in Abu Dhabi as almost third of them were excluded from safeguards intended to stop them from being abused and exploited.
According to news report, about 10,000 people were not covered by university’s labor guidelines, which were meant to protect them from exploitative conditions including forced labor, poor wages, illegal recruitment fees and associated debts, squalid living conditions, abuse and harassment.
The findings were published in a report conducted by international investigations firm Nardello& Co.
Investigation was commissioned by NYU and its partner Tamkeen, following reports by media and human rights groups suggesting that many migrant workers building new campus on Saadiyat Island lived in squalid conditions, were charged supposedly outlawed recruitment fees, received wages far lower than what they were promised, and had their passports confiscated by their employers. These findings were cited in a complaint by International Trade Union Confederation to International LaborOrganization, which is conducting an investigation into allegations of forced labor in United Arab Emirates.
A joint statement by NYU and Tamkeen said that 65% to 70% of the 30,000 migrant workers involved in constructing and operating the campus on Saadiyat Island, which opened last year, had been protected by guidelines. But they also accepted that system was flawed, adding that they would provide compensation to excluded workers in “line with what they should have received under our labor standards”.
It added that a third party would be appointed to reimburse affected workers.
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