Filipino employees of construction giant Fluor among migrant workers stranded in Dubai amid "chaotic" US withdrawal from Afghanistan; incl. co. comments
It’s the same situation that affects foreign contractors all over the world, people who have little understanding of where they’re going and very uncertain relationships once they arrive determining their legal status and movements. The terms of contracts in war can really absolve the employer of major responsibility. ... Even the right of return can be uncertain.Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
"Contractors who powered US war in Afghanistan stuck in Dubai," 10 Aug 2021
Some of the foreign contractors who powered the logistics of America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan now find themselves stranded on an unending layover in Dubai…
experts say the chaotic departure of the Pentagon’s logistics army lays bare an uncomfortable truth about a privatized system long susceptible to mismanagement…
an Associated Press journalist saw at least a dozen Filipino contractors for engineering and construction company Fluor stranded at the Movenpick hotel in Bur Dubai…
most of [the remaining 2,491 foreign contract workers on U.S. bases across Afghanistan] workers have since made it home on flights arranged by their employers…
several of the stranded Fluor contractors spent years working in construction, equipment transport, visa processing and other military logistics… They had nothing to do with combat operations but described nonetheless facing rocket attacks and other risks of war on base…
They while away their time watching TV and video-calling with family in the Philippines from the hotel, where Fluor provides daily meals...
[Fluor] released a statement saying, “We continue to do everything we can to repatriate all employees required to leave Afghanistan.” Fluor blamed virus-related travel restrictions for the troubles, said it was caring for everyone affected and promised to “continue to work closely with the U.S. government to remove these barriers as quickly as possible.”
Everyone has been so focused on the U.S. troops, and also the Afghans, interpreters and others [who could face revenge killings by a resurgent Taliban]... About the stranded foreign workers, the Biden administration can say, well, their companies and their governments should have moved heaven and earth to get them home.John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch