"I already bought you"
Subtitle: abuse and exploitation of female migrant domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates
By: [written by Rothna Begum; edited by Janet Walsh, Nisha Varia, Nicholas McGeehan, Malcolm Smart, Clive Baldwin, and Tom Porteus]
Contributors: Walsh, Janet, 1968- editor; Varia, Nisha, editor; McGeehan, Nicholas, editor; Smart, Malcolm, editor; Baldwin, Clive, editor; Porteous, Tom, editor; Human Rights Watch (Organization)
Publisher: Human Rights Watch
Published: 2014
Place of publication: New York]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 79
ISBN-13: 9781623131586
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: Human rights; International Labour Organization; Labor laws and legislation; Forced labor; Women immigrants; Visas; Abuse of; Women; Human trafficking; Women migrant labor
Other titles: Abuse and exploitation of female migrant domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates; United Arab Emirates :
Description: At least 146,000 female migrant workers - perhaps many more - are employed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Female domestic workers from the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Ethiopia, and elsewhere face severe abuse and exploitation by employers and labor recruitment agencies. "I Already Bought You" : Abuse and Exploitation of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in the United Arab Emirates documents how the UAE's visa sponsorship system (known as kafala) ties migrant workers to employers and how the exclusion of domestic workers from labor law protections leaves migrant domestic workers at risk of abuse. The report exposes barriers preventing abused domestic workers from obtaining remedy, including lack of shelters, penalties for "absconding" workers, and justice system failings. Based on interviews with 99 female domestic workers, recruitment agets, employers, and others in the UAE, the report documents abuses that domestic workers face - passport confiscation, non-payment of wages, lack of rest periods and time off, confinement to households, excessive work and working hours, food deprivation, and psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. In some cases the abuses amounted to forced labor or trafficking. The UAE has an increasingly influential role in the international labor arena. In 2014, it joined the governing body of the International Labor Organization. At home, however, it maintains the exploitative kafala system, has failed to adopt a bill pending since 2012 on domestic workers' rights, and has yet to ratify key international treaties on migrants' and domestic workers' rights. Human Rights Watch calls for the reform of the kafala system and the introduction of labor law protections and other measures to fully protect domestic workers' rights. -- back cover.
Notes: "October 2014"

Human Rights Watch report.

"This report was written by Rothna Begum, women's rights researcher for the Middle East and North Africa of Human Rights Watch. ... The report was edited by Janet Walsh, deputy director in the Women's Rights division; Nisha Varia, associate director of the Women's Rights division; Nicholas McGeehan, researcher in the Middle East and North Africa division; Malcolm Smart, consultant editor to the Middle East and North Africa division; Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor; and Tom Porteus, deputy director of the Program Office." -- page 79.

"Tom Porteous" is spelled wrong in the Acknowledgements on page 79.

Includes bibliographical references.

Also available online.
Table of contents: title: Summary; title: Key recommendations; title: Methodology; title: I. Labor migration to the Gulf and the UAE; title: II. Immigration and recruitment policies and practices; title: III. Labor law exclusion; title: IV. Abuses against domestic workers; title: V. Lack of shelter and support for abused domestic workers; title: VI. Charges and penalties against domestic workers; title: VII. Barriers to redress; title: Recommendations; title: Acknowledgements.