Treatment of South Asian labourers in the Gulf Cooperation Council region

Migrants from Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Maldives were contracted to develop the mushrooming skyscrapers.

Many of these migrants were brought into the GCC under the kafala system, a sponsor-based system used in the GCC, which is seen by many human rights groups as highly exploitative, since their passports are confiscated and they are forced to work in low-level conditions, within cramped living quarters, for a low salary, and sometimes even without their due pay; when exploitation is brought up or exposed by media or the labourers, their employers are rarely punished.

[9] Abdullah Al-Sadoun, chairman of the security committee of the Shoura Council, asked for Pakistani citizens to be scrutinized before being allowed to come into Saudi Arabia.

[11] Family members of Pakistani detainees said that the Saudi Arabian criminal justice system did not care about the circumstances that the accused brought drugs into the Middle East.

[11] Pakistani detainees in Middle Eastern jails sited poor prison conditions like no proper sewage system and no bedsheets for sleeping.

[15] In reports published by organizations like ILO and Human rights watch, it was revealed that Qatari government adopted a non-discriminatory minimum wage in March 2021 that applies to all workers, of all nationalities, in all sectors, including domestic work.

[16][17] India's foreign ministry received more than 9,500 complaints between January and June 2019 concerning unpaid salaries, no off days and not being given visas to go back home.

[18] In Qatar, the Human Rights Watch needed to step in after hundreds of South Asian workers died while working in construction.

To ensure compliance, the Government of Qatar enhanced the detection of violations, enacted swifter penalties and strengthened the capacity of labour inspectors.

[22] Rothna Begum, a specialist who studies Saudi Arabia, documented accounts of South Asian women sleeping on floors of storage rooms when they went to the Middle East.

[24] Pakistani consultant Muhammad Saad was arrested by the police in the United Arab Emirates and taken to the Abu Dhabi city where he was forced to perform sexual acts and was then raped.

In July 2016 Pakistani traveller Kehkashan Khalid's husband was assaulted on an aeroplane by Qataris for just reclining his seat so that the baby could sleep.

[31] In 2014, the Saudi Arabian government imposed additional formalities on its nationals from marrying Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Burmese women living in the kingdom.