(AFP) – May 19, 2009

ABU DHABI (AFP) — Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused Abu Dhabi authorities and global institutions of failing to tackle abuse of foreign workers and called for contractual guarantees from construction firms.

The New York-based rights group in a report focused on working conditions on the Abu Dhabi island of Saadiyat, where branches of the Guggenheim and Louvre museums and New York University are planned, said labour abuse persists in the oil-rich country.

"While the UAE government has moved to improve housing conditions and ensure the timely payment of wages in recent years, many labour abuses remain commonplace," HRW said in a statement, launching the report in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Mohammad Gargash, was quoted by the official WAM news agency as saying he was "shocked by the tendentious attempts by HRW" to hide efforts to improve the situation.

"Even though the government remains open to constructive criticism ... the report makes arbitrary generalisations, is imprecise and obscures reality," he said.

Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW Middle East and North Africa director, acknowledged that solving labour issues "is a top priority for the UAE government" but said that results are yet to appear.

"The UAE government has been telling us for years that they are working on the problem... but we haven't seen results," she told reporters.

HRW said international institutions "should urgently obtain enforceable contractual guarantees that construction companies will protect workers' fundamental rights on their projects."

Titled "'The Island of Happiness', Exploitation of Migrant Workers on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi," the report speaks of "unlawful recruiting fees, broken promises of wages, and a sponsorship system that gives an employer virtually complete power over his workers," including keeping their passports.

"The UAE government and the authorities responsible for developing Saadiyat Island have failed to tackle the root causes of worker abuse," HRW said.

Whitson said international institutions "need to show that they will not tolerate or benefit from the gross exploitation of these migrant workers."

These institutions were asked to get involved in protecting workers' rights ahead of starting their projects, but the response was not satisfactory, HRW researcher Willian Van Esveld told AFP.

He said the focus on Saadiyat island was partly due to the involvement of the big international entities there. "We thought they might do something about it," he said.

Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC), the government arm charged with developing Saadiyat island, rejected claims of abuse on the island.

"None of the construction contracts have been awarded to date," TDIC spokesman Bassem Terkawi said on Sunday on a tour of the island and new accommodation built to house future workers.

But asked about labourers building roads on Saadiyat, which is only few hundred metres (yards) offshore, he acknowledged there were about 2,300 construction workers working on infrastructure.

"These people live on the island. In terms of quality, their accommodation is no less" than the new facilities that are being completed to host 20,000 workers within 12 months.

HRW said some workers interviewed for the report had been "effectively confined" for two years on the island and charged that their conditions amounted to "forced labour".

TDIC on Tuesday called the report "misleading," saying many concerns had already been addressed.

"In December 2008, TDIC established the in-house department of Employment Practices Compliance to help protect the rights of labourers on its projects," it added in a statement.

Terkawi had said recruiting workers was the responsibility of contractors, but that TDIC was giving itself the right to monitor the process to eliminate abuse.

The UAE has repeatedly come under fire over conditions for foreign workers during its construction frenzy of recent years that needed cheap labour, mostly from south Asia.

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