"Nearly five years after Human Rights Watch first revealed systematic human rights violations of migrant workers on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island, a development project that will host branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums and New York University, there remain serious concerns about violations of workers’ rights in the context of labor supply chains in construction on the island. Although the institutions involved have overseen the institution of codes of conduct, some employers involved in the construction of these projects continue to confiscate passports and withhold salaries, and their workers still pay exorbitant recruitment fees to secure low-paid work in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The report, released in February 2015, also describes how major contractors on the Saadiyat Island site conspired with the authorities to have large numbers of workers summarily deported after strikes in protest at low pay and poor conditions. Workers also continue to be housed in poor and unsanitary accommodation.
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