Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are failing to protect outdoor migrant workers experiencing dangerous, heat-related health risks as global warming-fueled heatwaves envelope the region, Human Rights Watch said today.
Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) interviewed by Human Rights Watch described symptoms of heat-related illness, including fainting and vomiting, and described feeling suffocated by the heat. Despite deadly temperatures, interviewees often lacked access to shaded rest breaks and cold water to hydrate and cool off.
"Gulf states like to be seen as world leaders on a range of issues, but on the critical global issue of heat protection, their record is lackluster at best," said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "As a result, migrant workers in countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar who are trying to provide for their families back home are unnecessarily suffering every day, enduring long-term chronic illnesses, and even dying due to the suffocating heat."
Several of the hottest days on record since 1940 were recorded in the region in the third week of July 2024, according to one scientific dataset, and the heat index in some Gulf cities exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Dubai and Doha were recently ranked as the top two cities with the most dangerous summer heat globally. Media outlets reported that Dubai's temperatures on July 17, when factoring in humidity, felt like 62 degrees Celsius (143.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Yet Gulf states apply inadequate midday work bans that only prohibit outdoor work during pre-defined hours in the summer months instead of using the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index, a widely used index that measures occupational heat stress based on air temperature and relative humidity. Only Qatar uses the index as a threshold to stop outdoor work, but the work stoppage threshold is set too high to effectively protect workers.
In May 2023, Human Rights Watch interviewed 90 migrant workers to investigate the heat risks outdoor workers faced in Gulf states, in addition to 15 workers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in September 2023, after the midday work ban ended. In July 2024, during the peak summer heat, Human Rights Watch followed up on this research and interviewed eight workers in the UAE and Qatar.
"It is not sufficient to describe in words the heat we are experiencing," said a Qatar-based worker who builds scaffolding. "You have to experience it yourself. Our bodies are drenched in sweat. From head to feet. Not a single organ is spared."
A UAE-based worker said: "This job is not good for our health … headaches and fever are common. Continuously sweating makes your body weak. But our [economic] circumstances and necessity are the biggest drivers of strength that make us adjust even in the heat."
Peer-reviewed research studies have shown the inadequacies of the Gulf states' midday heat bans in effectively protecting workers as extreme heat conditions also occur outside the ban months or hours. "Resting for three hours does not take away the heat," a UAE-based worker said. After 3 p.m., too, it gets very hot. … When it gets too hot, you start feeling dizzy. Your body becomes weak. You lose your motor cognitive skills. Your muscles become extremely weak."
Another UAE-based worker said: "If the wind blows, the heat feels more tolerable but when it does not, even breathing becomes very difficult."
Not all supervisors are empathetic. One road construction worker said: "The foreman does not care; the engineer only looks for work. In the heat, people faint. The rest of us are expected to continue working as usual."
A Saudi-based worker said: "Every day, one or two workers faint, including during mornings and evenings. Sometimes on the way to work. Sometimes while working."
Nosebleeds, fever, headaches, nausea, and fainting are common among workers. Heat also has lasting health impacts such as end-stage kidney failure and even death. Human Rights Watch has documented that in such instances, migrant workers and their families are left without any support from the Gulf state governments or employers.
Gulf authorities should immediately adopt risk-based heat protection measures such as the WBGT with appropriate thresholds based on work intensity to impose evidence-based work-rest schedules, Human Rights Watch said.
Employers should also provide access to shaded rest areas and drinking water. "Things are better because work stops from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. now, and not at noon like in the past," a Qatar-based worker said. "However, the downside is we don't have access to rest areas at work. We go back to our camps, which is one hour away." Whenever he has to rest on site, he does so in the bus which is not air-conditioned.
Four workers Human Rights Watch spoke to this summer said water is not always available at the worksite. One worker said: "We have to stay hydrated. If we lose too much sweat or don't drink water every half-an-hour or so, we start feeling weak."
These heatwaves, already being fueled by the climate crisis, are expected to escalate rapidly if governments fail to take action to phase out fossil fuels. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's leading authority on climate science, has said that the Gulf states "are expected to approach, and possibly exceed, the physiological threshold for human adaptability by the end of the century."
Existing fossil fuel projects are already more than the climate can withstand to limit global warming to the increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius required to prevent a global climate collapse, according to the IPCC. Burning fossil fuels is the primary driver of the climate crisis, accounting for over 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Some countries, including the US, are developing heat protections for outdoor workers. While these protections also likely have serious gaps and significant hurdles remain for these policies to go into effect, they reference a rapidly growing body of research that links extreme heat exposure to serious health harm and are a significant step in the right direction.
Migrant workers also continue to face other abuses under the employer-based kafala (sponsorship) system in Gulf countries. Difficulty changing jobs and outstanding recruitment loans, for example, trap workers in abusive conditions. "If we slow down [at work because of the heat], the foreman threatens us with three days' wage deduction," one worker said.
Furthermore, trade unions are banned or restricted in Gulf states, especially for migrant workers. Gulf states also restrict free expression, which results in the persistence of inadequate protections like midday work bans.
Gulf states' experience dealing with a hot climate, managing large construction projects, and more recently hosting mega-events, like concerts and sports that entail outdoor exposure, should further incentivize these states to become leaders in heat protection, Human Rights Watch said.
Gulf states should aim to not repeat the recent tragedies involving extreme heat, including the over 1,300 deaths during Saudi Arabia's hosting of the annual Muslim pilgrimage known as the Hajj or Qatar's hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, in which extreme heat has been linked to the deaths of scores of migrant workers who made the tournament possible.
"As temperatures reach unprecedented levels globally, Gulf states should be leaders in implementing strong heat protections to safeguard outdoor workers, not passive bystanders who are failing to protect scores of migrant workers from the known health risks to extreme heat," Page said.
