“We don’t want to die in this desert”: Nepali workers in the UAE plead to be brought home
Summary
Date Reported: 16 Apr 2020
Location: United Arab Emirates
Companies
Emirates Cab - EmployerAffected
Total individuals affected: 40
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( 40 - Nepal , Transport: General , Gender not reported )Issues
Right to Food , Recruitment Fees , Contract Substitution , Precarious/Unsuitable Living Conditions , Poverty Wages , Wage TheftResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Resource Centre
Story containing response: (Find out more)
Action taken: In February 2020, 10 Nepalis were repatriated following negotiations with the company. On 20 March, a Nepali welfare charity found two rooms of accommodation for the men but the workers would have had to leave unless they could pay the second month's rent. Owing to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and related travel bans, it is uncertain when the remaining workers will be able to return home. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre contacted Emirates Cab Co. and invited them to respond to the allegations; they did not respond. By 4th July, at least 15 men had returned to Nepal penniless after their airfares were paid by the recruiting agency in Kathmandu. They were not asked if their company had paid them as they left UAE, but only for health details before being taken to quarantining on arrival in Nepal.
Source type: News outlet
From mid-February to mid-March, [40 Nepalis] slept on the sidewalks and in public parks, surviving on food [donations]... After they resigned from their job, which was neither paying them as promised nor providing accommodation, they had... no place to live and no money...
[The workers] all migrated to the UAE to work as taxi drivers for Emirates Cab seven months ago...
They had been promised 1,500 dirham, approximately Rs49,585, as salary and an additional 300 dirham for food, besides accommodation... once they were given taxis, they were evicted...
They were paid between 100 and 200 dirham, when it cost them an average of 300 dirham for accommodations and another 300 for food.