New Report on UAE Roundup of African Migrant Workers

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and ImpACT International for Human Rights Policies have released a report regarding the treatment of African migrant workers in the UAE (United Arab Emirates).

The 52-page report focuses on the events of June 24 and 25 of this year when UAE authorities rounded up some 800 African migrant workers (most from Uganda, Cameroon and Nigeria), plucking them from their homes, and taking them to prison. It is grounded in interviews with some 100 of the detained migrants.

The report concludes that the UAE is guilty of human rights abuses including:

• Excessive use of force
• Sexual harassment
• Racial discrimination and insults
• Arbitrary arrests and imprisonments
• Lack of due legal process and denial of access to lawyers
• Physical and psychological torture
• Denial of health care
• Confiscation of personal property
• Forced deportation

Some migrants remain in detention in the UAE, and the report calls for their immediate release.

-KitJ