End Slavery in the United Arab Emirates

In early 2022, the Dubai Expo was held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — a global event aimed at “enhancing the country’s international reputation as a location to do business”. Perhaps that’s their way of saying in the UAE business leaders have immense power and workers have little to no rights at all.

Migrant workers make up 90% of the UAE’s labour force, toiling under working conditions that many have called “modern-day slavery”. The UAE is also a safe haven for companies who attack workers’ rights.

Watch our Dubai Expo(sed) Video to see what workers are facing...


But we’ve put them on notice, and members of the ITUC online community — and thousands of others — are standing in solidarity with migrant workers being mistreated in the UAE.

You can too by adding your name to our petition calling for an end to:

  • Luring workers with lies: promising good-paying jobs, but then only providing migrants meager wages.
  • Debt deception: providing travel to the UAE for workers, then surprising them with a bill for their travel, and saddling them with debts they won’t be able to pay back for years — if ever.
  • Trapping workers: in a country and jobs where they’re mistreated through the confiscation of passports, and needing employers’ permission to change jobs or leave the country.
  • Sweltering heat and squalid housing: workers regularly are forced to work in 50C+ heat for hours at a time with no break — and when the day finally ends, they’re forced to return to “housing” that is dilapidated, dirty, and dangerous.
  • Lack of legal rights: despite all of the terrible conditions described above, workers have little to no legal rights or recourse, with strikes and trade unions banned in the country.


The UAE, and cities like Dubai, are building glittering cities in the desert on the backs and broken spirits of migrant workers trapped in modern-day slavery. Add your name to the petition now to demand an end to these degrading and dangerous working conditions.


Signatures: 2.831 / 3.000