The number one country I won’t visit ever again would have to be the UAE (United Arab Emirates). For those of you wondering, it’s located in the Persian Gulf.
Whenever someone mentions cities within the UAE, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, etc., the first images that come to mind are that of skyscrapers and glorious beaches, as well as other unique modern landmarks that can be seen:
(All images are taken from Google)
Looks wonderful, doesn’t it?
However, what most people don’t realize is that these massive buildings, which have granted this country its modern civilization, are mostly constructed and built by workers, the majority of which are expats in the UAE, and which have been denied their respective wages for months by the companies they’re working for.
The process of recruiting these workers is simple; companies would typically post ads or contact foreign recruitment/employment agencies based in multiple countries (Mostly Southeast Asian countries; i.e. Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, The Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, etc.) to recruit workers for them. The agencies would act as the middlemen between the two; they would find those interested in working abroad, or in the tempting offers and swaying promises made by the construction companies. The recruitment agencies would help the workers fill in their application forms and necessary documents for the job and the visa, and assist them in booking their airline tickets once their visa has been approved. Ultimately, they would get a fee from the workers and a percentage from the company.
The unsuspected laborers would take off to their destination in the hopes of being paid a high salary; and making a fortune to support their families back home.
Unfortunately, once they land in the UAE, they are given a lengthy contract to sign with the company, taken to their accommodation, and their passports are stripped away from them and kept by their employers. This makes them unable to leave the country unless they obtain their passports back somehow. Some of them never do, and are trapped for years.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the workers are made to stay in terrible accommodations. The places they are kept in are unhygienic and filthy for people to live in. Some of them are kept in old buildings, just on the outskirts of the city they helped build.
The issue generated some controversy and international attention by the media when a couple of journalists investigated the situation. Here are some pictures that have been taken by an Iranian investigative journalist who did an article about the mistreatment of these expats:
(Due to lack of proper cooking facilities, workers cook in unhygienic conditions)
(Some workers are paid so little, but are forced to stay in horrible conditions)
The workers are forced to share a room, sometimes 7–8 workers share one room to sleep in.
They are not offered running water for showering or cooking, and they aren’t offered proper cooking facilities either. Which means that, for most of the time, they are forced to find unconventional means to cook for themselves.
Due to the lack of sufficient plumbing, the men’s living compartments are engulfed by a river of sewage.
Some are paid as little as €150 a month, some are paid nothing whatsoever. Most are unable to protest because they are unable to leave, due to not having their passports, and are forced to stay and complete their contract work agreement.
Most are in debt back home because they had to take loans and borrow money to pay the agencies and buy an airline ticket, and their minimum wage income isn’t helping them to pay off their debts or to support their families back home or themselves.
The working conditions themselves are atrocious. Workers are forced to work for as long as 12 hours per day, sometimes more. They are made to work during day shifts. Even when the temperature outside reaches 50 Celsius, workers have to work under the sun.
The UAE government officials have been criticized for allowing such treatment to take place. However, the government’s response was to deny such accusations and ensure all the migrant workers in the UAE are treated well and are taken care of by their employers. Even if reality revealed otherwise.
A lot of this is termed as “modern slavery.” A mini documentary made by Vice has been uploaded to YouTube ,in which reporter Ben Anderson poses as a British tourist and exposes the mistreatment of migrant workers in the UAE. I know it’s a bit outdated, but this remains a pressing issue that’s still going on to this day.
Slaves of Dubai
- I’m not bashing the people of the UAE. I’m sure there are wonderful people there. On the plus side: the food was great, and it was a lovely getaway. The hospitality we recieved was great. On the down side: it was incredibly expensive, and I’m not entirely sure the cost was entirely worth it for the tourist experience you’re looking to get.
- However, unfortunately, the government doesn’t care about making a reform or changing the laws to protect the rights of the migrant workers that seek a better life and are kept in the dark about the circumstances that might await them. I’m not in support of that.
- I realize that such activities go on, and do happen, in different countries across all of the continents. The only difference between the UAE and other countries is that most countries have laws against such actions and reward migrant workers with their proper rights. I understand migrant workers from everywhere might face discrimination and racism while they’re working in different countries, but at least their legal rights are preserved and they are protected. The UAE workers are not, because the UAE doesn’t grant them their legal rights. On top of that, in case the workers attempt to escape their forced labor, once they’re caught by authorities, they are rejoined with their abusive employers despite any protests.
- A lot of the workers who succeed in running away spend years hiding from the authorities. During that period, they try to gather as much money as possible to be able to afford a return ticket back home, since the government won’t legally deport them or ask the company they work for to pay for their return ticket, either.
The UAE – especially Dubai. We travelled there for 3 nights having had an amazing 3 weeks in India (go there, I can’t recommend it more!). As soon as we left the airport, we met with aggressive locals who gave the impression that they had better things to do than be nice to tourists.
They definitely gave the impression that there are so many tourists that it didn’t matter if a significant proportion are ignored and taken advantage of.
Everywhere we went they tried to rip us off or charge stupid amounts of money, for example, at the Burj Khalifa, one of those souvenirs photos you get at theme parks are $70!!! Taxi drives have no problem ripping you off, one tried to charge us $40 for driving us a mile.
The whole city also feels fake and soulless, and the fact that you cannot even walk anywhere (the whole city is just made up of highways) added insult to injury.
Overall DO NOT GO – 3 nights there costs more than 2+ weeks in countries such as India and Indonesia, which are infinitely more beautiful, friendly and will give you much better memories!
Somalia.
I went to Somalia with my family because my parents wanted us to visit and to see the country and the culture they come from.
I hated being in that country.
People in Somalia would just stare at me all day because it was strange for them to see a Somali girl not wearing hijab. Women in Somalia would usually go outside wearing this:
Relatives of my father would pity my parents, because I was an unmarried 20 year-old woman. They would, of course, then blame it on the fact that I was born in a western country. Then they would go on and laugh at my parents, because they paid for my education; my relatives thought it was an absolute waste since I was just a girl.
People thought it was a disgrace that Female Genital Mutilation wasn’t performed on me, and they would wonder what kind of men would want an unclean girl like me.
There was not a day in Somalia where I didn’t face sexism. All of it just made me hate the country and the Somali culture.
I’m never going back to that country, even if it is where I came from.
Russia. I’ve been there four times, once for a scientific conference, and three times for discussion of arms control, and I find the Russian culture and art and people wonderful. Under the communist regime I always felt personally safe. Because of my security clearances, I sensed that the KGB kept me under surveillance (indeed, one time my wife was approached in an attempt to find out more about me). As a result, I felt secure; nobody could accost me without me getting off immediate defense from my KGB followers.
But I’ve had a close friend, Dan Ford, who interacted with the Putin government, and was threatened with murder if he didn’t comply with their illegal demands. “We’ve learned that it would be cheaper to have you killed than to buy your shares” he was told.
When Dan reported this to the FBI, they told him that such behavior had become common under the Putin regime, and that there was nothing they could do. They suggested that he give up ownership of the Russian company he had cofounded. He did, losing all of his substantial investment, but saving his own life.
His story is very similar to that of Bill Browder, but in Browder’s case, his close colleagues actually were murdered. You can read his story in the book Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice, by Bill Browder. I highly recommend this book; it gives a remarkable insight into what is currently happening in Russia. I asked Browder if his book put his life in additional danger, and he told me that he hoped for the opposite. Now that he has gone public, it makes it much more difficult for Putin to simply kill him.
If Putin and his kind of government is ever replaced, then I could imagine going back.
Australia
“Australia is not a place for the faint-hearted.” The fact is that this continent is inhabited by the most dangerous animals in the world. Water and land on the Green Continent are simply teeming with the diversity of its far from harmless occupants. Most Australians are accustomed to living next door to venomous snakes, spiders, crocodiles and other deadly creatures. If before you still wanted to visit Australia, then after watching these frames, you will lose any desire to travel around this country. Personally, I would not risk …:)”
