Cynthia Nyaboke is 25 years old. She is from a farming community in Murang'a County in central Kenya, but was forced to move abroad to the United Arab Emirates for work because climate-change induced extreme flooding made life unsustainable. Her parents paid her recruitment fee, equivalent to $800. When she arrived in Dubai, she found herself in modern-slavery conditions, working as a domestic worker, 10 hours a day, six days a week, for about $300 a month.

On 13 November she shared a raw accounting of her experience to an audience in Washington D.C. as part of the launch of our report Unjust Transitions: Climate Migration, Heat Stress, and Labour Exploitation in the United Arab Emirates. Carried out by Equdiem’s migrant worker-researchers and based on interviews and discussions with nearly 250 migrant workers in the UAE, the report revealed that workers at the heart of the UAE’s renewable and gig sectors, and at the site that will host the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) have left homes in Africa and Asia because of climate change only to be subjected to physical abuse, heat stress, exploitation and discrimination.

One of Equidem’s most vital mandates is to raise the voices of workers like Cynthia’s and empower her to share her reality with distant decision-makers, people who set policy but are far removed from the Global Majority...

On International Migrants Day, we are honored to elevate her words...