After last year’s Primark on the Rack, BBC Panorama has been investigating labour standards again. This time the BBC exposé focuses on the conditions of migrant workers building luxury estates in Dubai. Dubai is a by-word for 1^st world seven-star living, with developments endorsed by footballer Michael Owen, cricketer Andrew Flintoff and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. But behind the façade migrant workers face 3^rd world wages and conditions.

Eighty percent of Dubai’s population are migrants, mainly from the Asian sub-continent, lured to Dubai by employment agents selling the dream of making good money of 1500 dirham (£277.54) a month. But, on arrival, the dream rapidly becomes a nightmare. Wages are less than half the promised level, Panorama exposed workers being paid £120 per month, working 12 hour shifts, six days a week. At these rates workers could only afford to eat meat two or three times a month. And it gets worse, Panorama also found workers working unpaid to repay the £2000 ‘transit fees’ they owe to the employment agency for getting them the ‘dream job’ in the first place.

In labour camps belonging to Arabtec Construction, a sub-contractor to the Jumeriah Golf Estates, Panorama found workers accommodation overflowing with sewage and persuaded a recruitment agent to tell her story

And things are getting worse, the global financial downturn has led to thousands of workers losing their jobs and being sent back to their home countries prematurely. Not only do they often still owe the employment agents their ‘transit fee’, but their home economies are suffering from the reduction in remittances being sent back on a monthly basis.

Impactt’s own experience in Dubai underlines that migrant workers’ jobs are very poor quality.  Far from being better off than they would be at home, the balance has tipped and a migrant job is often the gateway to poverty and despair.   

Clearly something must be done, and we believe that it is possible to make change. There are cost-effective ways for companies using migrant labour to have an impact on basic conditions for workers, particularly in accommodation standards, payment of transit fees and working hours. All that is needed is the determination to change the current business model.

As a first step, it is vital to establish an industry-wide dialogue to harness the power of the construction giants, the contractors and the UAE government to create a new framework for managing migrant labour in Dubai. This should recognise the mutual dependency that exists between the industry and the workers, and be a vehicle for tackling the issues highlighted by the Panorama programme.

The Impactt Middle East and North Africa office opens in Dubai next week and will be constantly surrounded by migrant workers – in fact we overlook two buildings which are under construction. You can expect regular updates on the conditions these workers face and our efforts to improve them.