Migrant Workers and Their Rights in the United Arab Emirates

Migrant workers have lived in the Arabian Peninsula for more than two centuries. Starting in the 1970s, however, the dynamics of migration flows to the Persian Gulf region took a new twist with the rise in oil prices and the development boom in the region’s newly independent countries. These changing dynamics were most notable in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).1 In 1968, the population of the UAE was 180,000, of which two-thirds were nationals and one-third migrants.2 By 2005, the UAE’s population had risen to 4.1 million, of which about 80 percent were migrants.3 The changing dynamics of migration flows to the region have triggered a debate over labor conditions and practices that violate the rights of migrant workers and subject them to modern day exploitation and abuse.