Migrant workers across the Gulf are risking their lives by being forced to work up to 14 hours a day in deadly temperatures, according to human rights researchers.
Equidem, a human rights organisation, interviewed more than 250 migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE between 2021 and May 2024 for a new report on the conditions they were facing including their exposure to extreme heat and long working hours.
It said that speaking to workers was challenging, as both they and the researchers could face arrest, detention and deportation if caught conducting interviews. Equidem research is conducted by migrant workers who are hired to document the working conditions they are fellow workers face.
The Gulf is a leading global destination for migrant workers from some of the world’s poorest countries, brought in to work on large-scale construction project such as Saudi’s Neom project and the men’s football World Cup in Qatar.
As part of its research, Equidem says it calculated the “wet-bulb” temperatures that workers across the region were being exposed to. Wet-bulb temperature measurements are used to assess the combined effect of temperature, wind speed, humidity and solar radiation on the human body.
According to the UN, all outdoor physical work should stop when the wet-bulb temperature reaches 32C (89.6F). At this point the body is no longer able to cool itself and organs can start failing.
Yet Equidem says that its research found that workers across the Gulf region were increasingly being forced to work in wet-bulb temperatures of more than 45C.
“People [at the UN climate talks] are talking a lot about mitigation, but for wide swaths of the population the climate crisis is already here. We are putting migrants to work in deadly temperatures day in and day out,” said Shikha Silliman Bhattacharjee, research director at Equidem.
Many of the workers interviewed for the report were employed to do jobs that involved extended periods of strenuous work outdoors on construction sites, or as delivery drivers or domestic workers, leaving them exposed to some of world’s highest temperatures between April and September.
Workers who spoke to Equidem reported limited access to water and break times, as well as a host of heat-related health issues including skin rashes, dehydration and heatstroke. Workers also reported illegal working hours of up to 84 hours a week and 14 hour-shifts with no overtime pay.
On construction sites in Qatar, in order to reduce breaks and keep people on site, teams of workers reported receiving buckets of frozen water to share, forcing them to wait for the ice to melt and take turns before drinking.
Nathan*, a Kenyan worker employed as a security guard by a subcontractor in the renewables sector in the UAE, told researchers: “Sometimes I am made to stand more than 10 hours in the scorching sun, and this gives me a constant headache all the time. I take pain killers to cool it down which isn’t good for my health.”
In other testimony, a food delivery worker, Sahil*, from India, said: “I picked up a delivery at around 1pm. While nearing the area, I felt dizzy. I parked my bike. While taking out the bottle from the container, I felt awkward and collapsed. People around there carried me to the shade, sprayed water on my face, awoke me and brought me back to consciousness. The medics diagnosed that it was a heatstroke.”
As many as 10,000 migrant workers from south and south-east Asia have previously been reported as dying every year in the Gulf countries, with overwork, abusive working conditions and extreme heat among risks cited by human rights groups.
Subjecting workers to extreme heat stress was a form of “workplace violence”, said Bhattacharjee. She called for a greater focus on adaptation at the UN climate talks in Azerbaijan that start on 11 November.
“At best they are leaving migrant workers with long-term damage to their bodies. They cannot sustain it for more than a few years, but are trading their long-term health for the short-time that they work in these conditions.”
*Names of workers have been changed
