Migrant Workers Protest Wage Withholding in Bahrain

On 7 June 2017, migrant laborers staged a rally with almost one hundred demonstrators, consisting of mostly Indian and Bangladeshi workers. The gathering is a notable occurrence in a country that enforces extreme restrictions on the right to free assembly. It was held in Sanad and called for the workers to be paid by their[…]

HRC35 Item 3 Oral Intervention: Migrant Labor in Saudi Arabia

On 9 June 2017, ADHRB’s Advocacy Associate delivered an oral intervention on behalf of ADHRB and BIRD during the 35th session of the Human Rights Council under the Item 3 Interactive Dialogue with the Rapporteur on migrants. In his intervention, Pry raised the issue of migrant labor in Saudi Arabia in the context of the[…]

Qatar’s new sponsorship law fails to abolish kafala system

16 December 2016 – A new sponsorship law in Qatar fails to reform the kafala system and Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) finds that these failed reforms continue to leave migrant workers vulnerable to abuse. On 13 December 2016, a new law governing the sponsorship of migrant workers in Qatar came[…]

Living as Commodities: Human and sex trafficking in the GCC

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) is pleased to announce its new report, Living as Commodities: Human and sex trafficking in the GCC . Please see the introduction below, and click here for the full report.  All of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are highly dependent upon foreign labor, and thus[…]

Bahrain Moves to Reform Kafala, Exclusions Remain

Last week, the Bahrain government announced a new flexible work permit that would allow migrant workers to act as their own sponsor. The new permit is unprecedented as it’s the first mechanism of its kind in the Gulf designed to dismantle the kafala system of sponsorship-based employment, which tethers migrant workers to their employers and[…]