So we hear a lot about how countries liek Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia etc use slave labor because people from Africa, india, pakistan, bangladesh or whatever come over to work and then they live in horrible conditions and their employers steal their passports so they can’t leave. How does this stop anyone from leaving?
I know for a fact that if you lose a US passport while you are abroad you can go to the embasssy and report it lost and they print an emergency passport which can be used to leave the country. Yesterday i was at an airport in Poland and someone from Italy or something had his passport stolen and he used some document printed by the embassy allowing him to leave. Do countries like india or pakistan or whatever not have these? I get maybe its dificult for africans since many african countries only have a few embassies abroad in other countries or they might not offer many services but can these people who are “enslaved” not just go to their embassies and explain the situation so they can leave teh country? Do their countries just not give a shit that they’re being “enslaved?” I understnad that Gambia or Guinea Bisseau can’t stand up to the UAE but surely India or Pakistan can.
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People often are deliberately misinformed by their captors that being in the country illegally comes with a harsh punishment or imprisonment. If the captives don’t speak/read the language of the land well, they may not be able to find out otherwise.
I have lost a passport abroad once.
My embassy required my birth certificate and another form of ID in order to print me a document saying I could fly home. I had to have my family fedex me my BC. I had to fly to the city that had the embassy, I then had to pay $100USD for that little paper allowing me to fly. Not a new passport. Just a paper allowing me to fly. I spoke the local language fluently. I was not taught to fear the police or threatened with immigration/deportation. My family back home was not being threatened. I had money to cover the travels, documents and mailings required. I also had another form of ID. I was not illegally living or working in the country I lost my passport in.
Now imagine if any of those situations changed. Would I have been able to get the paper needed to fly home?
It’s also not like there’s an embassy of every country on every street corner. There’s usually only one per country. Good luck getting there from a random spot in the desert without money or ID and while potentially even being physically prevented from leaving your workplace.
Can’t go anywhere, no money, no food. In a foreign land where you only know the one person.
Most countries allow you to travel back to your home country if you can prove your nationality with a photo copy of your stolen or lost passport.
The problem with these migrant workers from poor countries is that they don’t have the freedom to just travel whenever they want. It costs them months, if not years, of work to be able to afford a ticket back home. So they don’t have the freedom that you think.
I’m not condoning the practice of employers keeping their employees passports’ btw just pointing this out for some additional nuance.
I believe workers rights are improving in those countries as their economies develop and their regulatory frameworks mature.
It depends.
In a poor country, there are lots and lots of people wanting to get out, by using all sorts of tricks.
The embassies as a result do not easily process people and also can get corrupt themselves or get high and think they are really powerful.
Either way, it might not be a walk in the park even if you have some other way to identify yourself and might take a long time.
And that’s if you have another way to id yourself, if you don’t, then it would be difficult to prove who you are.
Also, you might be threatened, beaten among other things to prevent you from seeking help.
The workplace may put them In a shitty facility thats either locked or under guard when their not working. They certainly wouldn’t give you the opportunity to easily get new documents. Also, if you went there to work, and they’re witholding your payment to avoid you leaving, how will you afford it? Not everyone has someone who can help them money wise. So without documents or money, they end up as slaves. Not «slaves».
Here’s how it worked/works in Dubai. On arrival into the country there is an agent for the company that collects everyone’s passport to get your labor card, and loads them on the bus to the company housing. If you work as a domestic servant, your employer will ask to keep your passport in their safe for your own security.
What happens if you are a middle-class worker is that you will have your personal space, so you will have your birth certificate, and other ID documents in your possession. If you go to the Indian consulate, you will get a replacement passport in a few days. If you are a maid/laborer, you won’t bring your birth certificate, so you can’t get a replacement passport. For the middle class people who CAN get a replacement passport, you still can’t easily leave
– if you are leaving permanently, you need to cancel your residence visa which needs a no-objection letter from your employer/bank/police depending on the kind of sponsor. This means if you have a loan/police charges/pissed off your boss, you can be barred from leaving.
-if you are thinking, why not just leave without cancelling the visa, is that you can’t re-enter the country if the previous visa has not been cancelled. So if you have family etc, you can do a permanent complete family exit, or nothing.
– All debt is personal debt in Dubai and other Arab countries, and not paying is a crime. So if you miss a mortgage payment, or don’t pay a vendor, they will file a case against you that puts you on a travel watchlist. You can’t leave the country till you pay, and the cops are on their way to lock you up. Debt is the most common reason people want to leave.
– if you stop showing up to work, the company will report you as ‘absconding’ which also puts you on a travel watchlist.
If the situation with your employer goes bad, you basically need to work out your contract, no matter what. You cannot legally leave unless your employer allows it.
Well it’s not like they take your passport and then let you walk around. You are closely watched. Your day to day is controlled by your enslavers. You food your water your everything is controlled.
I quite a job because they kept sending me to Dubai. And it was horrifying there. I saw busses of “workers” drive off into the desert and come back empty.
I can’t stop it. But I’ll be damned if I’ll be a part of it.
This is why I hate European hotels taking your passport. I don’t even know why they do that.
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