A shocking international report exposes the theft of wages for Africans expelled from the UAE 

A shocking investigative report exposed the practices of enslavement and exploitation of African immigrants in the UAE, and they were expelled from it without receiving their accumulated dues with companies that refuse to settle them.

The report was published by Reuters, but from its office in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and not from Dubai, where its regional headquarters is, where many stopped before this observation.

And the circulated story began, and was seized by international human rights bodies, with a broad title: “Wages theft in the Emirates, the expulsion of Africans, and the confiscation of their future.”

According to the transferred testimonies, a significant number of Africans were arrested a day before their salaries were paid, and were deported without identification papers, and were arrested by their former superiors, as hundreds of African immigrants who were expelled from Abu Dhabi struggle to start over without basic documents and necessary funds.

"She lost everything," said Emmanuela Nsobi, a 30-year-old Cameroonian who worked in a gift shop until her arrest in a mass raid on African migrant workers on the night of June 24.

"My boss still owes me two weeks' salary, I send him letters but he doesn't reply," she told Reuters from her region in northwest Cameroon.

In early September, the UAE confirmed that it had arrested and deported nearly 400 people for allegedly committing crimes related to human trafficking, assault, and extortion, accusations that migrants and human rights groups described as bogus.

Mass deportations of migrant workers have been common in the UAE, often resulting in “wage theft,” where migrants are suddenly sent home and are unable to get weeks - and sometimes months - of unpaid wages.

Since she was brought home, the Cameroonian has sent a message to her former boss at the “Golden Tower” gift shop on WhatsApp, asking him to transfer the amount of 900 dirhams ($ 245.04) to her back payments.

But its boss, and none of the other companies that hired the deportees, responded to requests for comment from Reuters.

Like the rest of the workers detained in June, she was deported without a chance to recover her belongings, including her ATM card, as well as professional certificates.

The report cited the testimony of Daniel Ojo, a 31-year-old Nigerian, who said he had not received two months' wages from Magic World for general maintenance services by the time of his deportation.

He added: "He has arrears of about 4,500 dirhams (1225 dollars), I chatted with my boss, and then he stopped answering my messages."

And he concluded his testimony by emphasizing: “He is willing not to pay me because I no longer exist.”

The UAE is home to about 10 million people, more than 80% of whom are expatriates who send their remittances to their families, according to the United Nations.

It is a lifeline for many families, with remittances accounting for 4% of Nigeria's GDP in 2020.

According to the report, wage theft is common among migrants residing in the UAE, with one advocacy group, the Business and Human Rights Resource Center, saying that 67% of cases of worker abuse from the UAE include allegations of non-payment.

Saeed Al Habisi, director of the Human Rights Department of the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that UAE law obliges employers to pay workers wages for any work done, regardless of whether they have been deported or have a criminal record.

“The termination of the residency right will not prevent employees from pursuing complaints against employers for non-payment of wages through legal channels,” Al Habsi said in written comments. However, complaints must be submitted within one year.

The Emirati official refused to disclose whether any of the workers detained in June had lodged complaints, or if they would be allowed to return, but “in general, those who have been deported due to serious criminal violations are prevented from the UAE indefinitely.”

The report indicated that none of the workers interviewed had heard of the assistance offered in the UAE, and they could not afford to hire lawyers.

“Workers do not know who they can go to, or what their rights are, and documentation may not be provided in their mother tongue, so the idea that particularly vulnerable workers would be able to navigate this system is not feasible,” he said.

Parvathi Devi, a researcher who has worked on wage theft cases in the UAE, said migrants have rarely seen success in achieving their demands, without financial and legal support from international helpers.

The best they could do, Davey said, was to hand the power of attorney over to a lawyer before leaving the UAE, something the African workers had no chance of doing prior to deportation.

Another shocking testimony was given by Victorine Idem, a registered nurse from Cameroon, who owed 6,000 dirhams ($1,633.63) to her employer in Abu Dhabi.

But she and her husband were deported to Cameroon, but the ongoing conflict there led them to seek asylum in Nigeria.

She is now seven months pregnant, has digital copies of her nursing certificates and is working on renewing the originals, but she sees no future in the UAE.

"After giving birth, I want to travel to another country to work," she said.

"I will look in Canada and the United States of America, I think human rights are respected there," she added.(Suleiman Haj Ibrahim)