Geneva: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) rejects forced labour as a “shameful crime” and strictly deals with companies that practise it, a UAE labour official said on behalf of the bloc at an International Labour Organisation conference held in Geneva.
Humaid Bin Deemas, UAE’s Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs, said at the conference as it discussed measures of adopting the Forced Labour Convention No 29 issued in 1930. The convention defines ‘forced labour’ as all workers that face threatening for involuntarily working on any sort of task.
Bin Deemas stated that providing a decent workplace for all employees is a sure guarantee for avoiding any risks of falling into the forced labour category, as well as the duty and responsibility of providing necessary protection of all workers’ rights.
He expressed GCC countries’ willingness to contribute actively in international efforts to eliminate all forms of forced labour, saying, “We’re developing new legal tools to address gaps of the current coverage. We support the ILO’s interest in this issue, which represents one of our four strategic pillars.”
He pointed out in his speech that companies are urged not to violate workers’ rights in contravention of labour laws, adding that forced labour is considered a criminal offence as per laws enacted to counter human trafficking in GCC countries and international conventions that combat forced labour.
“Statistics [in the GCC] have shown that these countries receive nearly two and a half million temporary contract labourers annually, which necessitated us to be participants in international efforts to eradicate this problem, and stop forced labour beneficiaries,” Bin Deemas said.
He added that the UAE has provided excellent protection for labourers as it gave them the ability to freely move from one employer to another, as well as the Wage Protection System, which was developed to ensure proper salary transfer.
The UAE official mentioned that the labour ministry has further developed its inspection department to carry out technical and financial inspections with great professionalism.
“GCC countries have sought to activate genuine partnerships with labour-sending countries through a variety of mechanisms, particularly signing MoUs, alongside the Abu Dhabi dialogue that aims at improving the management of relationships with those countries.
