Working & living conditions for Gulf migrant workers worsen as employers conduct mass layoffs & salaries go unpaid amid COVID-19
"The Gulf's migrant workers are being exploited amid the coronavirus crisis, rights groups say," 14 Jul 2020
The controversy surrounding cheap migrant labor in the oil-rich Gulf states has intensified during the coronavirus pandemic...
“...some of the (workers) are going home without their paid wages,” Rothna Begum, [of Human Rights Watch said] “... unscrupulous employers and agents realize this is an opportunity to allow workers to go home... without having to pay them.”
Amnesty International said that the coronavirus pandemic had worsened conditions for many of these workers... salary delays and layoffs [are] a major risk... in addition to overcrowded living conditions, a lack of support, detentions and deportations, and problems with healthcare and sick pay...
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have also said that undocumented workers can still receive healthcare. But the problem remains that many workers are simply too afraid to get care, believing they will be arrested, revealing a “trust deficit” between workers and their host governments, Begum said.