Racism refers to a situation where certain actions, practices or beliefs foster different treatment to people of different races. Under such circumstances, the different races are either treated as superior or inferior to the others. Racism has been a major menace in many political countries where it has been met with approval in some countries where others have been in great denial to the vice. Middle East has been a great destination of racism especially in the work places. This has been as a result of the tremendous rise in the number of foreigners working in these countries where they have suffered immensely as a result of racism. The increased racism in the working sector has resulted to the increase in the slavery and mistreatment of foreign workers in the United Arab Emirates (Kymlicka & Pföstl, 2014).

In order to properly understand the racism practices in the UAE, it is important to understand the structure and the components of the races present in UAE. It is consisted of several emirates that include Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Umm, Khaimah and Fujairah. All these emirates are of Islamic faith and Arab is their official language. However, the countries have received a good number of foreign workers as a result of diversified economy and increasing levels of unemployment in other parts of the world. From past researches, it is clear that more than 90% of the working population in UAE is from foreigners. The working population in these Arab countries is composed of 1.75 million Indians, 1.25 million Pakistanis, 500,000 Bangladeshis; 1 million other Asian; 500,000 European and African (Sheppard, 2009).

For several years, many people have opted to work and live in several of these Arab countries as a result of perceived good living standards and availability of well paying jobs. However, it has turned to be a very different situation. This is because radicalization has become the order of the day. Several foreign workers have been subjected to poor working and living standards as well as poor pay according to several human rights researches. Several foreign workers in these Arab countries have been subjected to inhumane treatment which has resulted to several deaths and increase in slavery (Kymlicka & Pföstl, 2014). The most vulnerable people have been the blacks who have been subjected to slavery despite the abolition of Slave Trade Act in early 1807. Slavery in Middle East and especially in UAE has been the order of the day and serious action should be taken with swift.

The foreigners working in United Arab Emirates have been experiencing several labor abuses which range from low income to other inhumane acts from their employers. The great suffering is from the casuals especially house helps and those doing manual works such as masons, plumbers just to mention but a few. For inst6ance, the Kafala sponsorship program has been categorized as one of the extreme exploitation of the foreign workers. This program has been in place for several years and offers the employers and sponsors absolute rights to determine the legal residence of workers (Kymlicka & Pföstl, 2014). This program is also responsible for the utmost control of the employees to determine the migrants living conditions, nutrition, and their ability to return home, their pay as well as the capacity to change employment. This program has been the root cause of every inhumane act since the migrants are tied up in these countries and have no route to escape.

Some of the racial abuse originates from the migrants country of origin where there are several employment agencies.  These agencies are known to charge very colossal sums as recruitment fee with false promises of high pay. The employment agencies are also responsible for confiscating the foreigners’ passports to ensure that their clients will have no opportunity to escape from these countries. With the passports confiscated, the foreigners can be subjected to forced labor and at times with little or no pay. This is because the employees do not have an opportunity to return to their home countries and they also face the risk of illegal residence status. This makes the employees to live in debt and thus they remain tied to the harsh working conditions subjected to them by their employers (Sheppard, 2009).

Another form of racism action experienced by the foreigners working in United Arab Emirates as exposed by Human Rights Watch is the extreme working conditions which are also referred to as labor camp conditions. The human right watch has described the people working in construction sites as well as the domestic workers as the most affected group of workers. It has been asserted that several foreigners working in the construction sites have been exposed to long working hours (in excess of 12 hours per day and no holidays) and in extreme weather conditions. The domestic workers have also been subjected to such and even worse treatment from their employers. They have greatly suffered from debt bondage and wage exploitation which has made their living conditions intolerable. In some instances, several domestic workers have been a subject of sex abuse which has been accelerated by the enclosed nature of their jobs. Most of these domestic workers live like prisoners in their employers’ home where they don’t even have a chance to get out of the homestead (Kymlicka & Pföstl, 2014). To add salt to injury, their wellbeing is thought to be at greater risk given the undocumented abuses that occur within the intimate sphere of the home.

The political formation in the United Arab Emirates has been a critical factor which has promoted racism in the work place. The low paid employment for example has been promoted by the prohibition of trade unions within the country. Absences of such labor unions have been a great hindrance to bargaining for better wages. The government has not put in place legal grounds on which mistreated employees can address labor conflicts as they arise in their work place. This has the ultimate effect of disempowering workers and their capacity to determine their employment choices, rights to expression, association and free movement within their work place. Failure by the political government to put in place avenues to address such issues and conflicts in work places has resulted to an increase in the number of suicidal deaths in these Arab countries. This has been evidenced by the international labor force which indicates that suicides have increased vehemently among the low income migrant workers.

In conclusion, the rates of racial abuse to foreigners in these Arab countries have been a major concern to the world population. The increase in such inhumane acts has been a critical health concern as far as world health organization is concerned. It has also resulted to lapse in moral and cultural behavior. Actions of human trafficking, sex tourism and other emotional and psychological well being of the foreign workers have been greatly jeopardized. The forced labor and sexual abuse of employees have been very detrimental to their health (Sheppard, 2009).  The abuse of migrants and denying them a right to get back to their home country brings about separation with other family members which results to both psychological and emotional problems in the society. As a result, the UAE government needs to embrace mechanisms to reduce such inhumane acts within these states. For instance, the government should put in place a better legal ground upon which the perpetrators can face justice through court systems, deportation, imprisonment and repression. Increased human watch activities should also be encouraged in these countries to ensure that racism is reduced significantly.

References

Kymlicka, W., & Pföstl, E. (2014). Multiculturalism and Minority Rights in the Arab World. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sheppard, E. S. (2009). A world of difference: encountering and contesting development (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

 
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