Subsidised By Slavery
How States Are using Temporary Worker Programmes To Take Advantage of The World's Most Vulnerable Workers
Sameen Rehman
Migrant workers, defined as “a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged
in a remunerated activity in a state of which he or she is not a national” under Article 2(1) of
the Internation Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families (ICRMW), are arguably the backbone of most societies.
However, many countries do not offer adequate legal protections to migrant workers. This
allows them to be exploited by employers and denied provisions that are enjoyed by
nationals, including access to healthcare and limits on daily working hours, which in turn
perpetuates their vulnerability. In particular, this paper will focus on two ‘smart cities,’’
Dubai and Singapore, to exemplify how economic efficiency is built upon the unfair
treatment of migrant workers. This author ultimately concludes that Temporary Worker
Programmes have embedded this exploitation into the structure of the global order and many
protections need to be put into place to stop this from continuing.
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