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Article

2 Nov 2020

Author:
Human Rights Watch (HRW)

HRW latest to report on deception & exploitation of Sudanese recruited by Black Shields Security co. in UAE, forced to fight in Libya

"Recruited as Security Guards in the UAE, deceived into working in conflict-ridden Libya instead," 1 Nov 2020

"from the day he arrived in September 2019, Amer had grown increasingly uneasy about Black Shield Security Services, the Emirati security services company that hired him. His passport and phone were taken away. He was required to undergo a months-long military training. And he was kept in the dark about where he and hundreds of other Sudanese recruits would eventually be posted...

[they] were transported to, and housed in, a dilapidated military compound in the eastern Libyan town of Ras Lanuf... told they would guard the surrounding oil facilities the LAAF controlled...

[they] experienced several exploitative recruitment practices and migrant labor abuses commonly faced by migrant workers in the UAE and the wider Gulf region... [unusually] the deception they were subjected to ultimately put them at risk of becoming potential military targets in a country embroiled in a years-long civil war, in what could amount to a violation of international humanitarian law. Our investigation into their plight highlights just one example of the UAE’s pernicious involvement in foreign conflicts.