Climate, health and global issues

Kenyan migrants are returning from Saudi Arabia, both dead and living, with suspicious scars that may indicate organ harvesting. Under the Kafala system, migrant workers’ agency is greatly limited, and the control and consent over their bodies are poorly protected. The combination of these factors puts them at risk of various exploitative and sinister practices, including the illegal organ trade.

Driven from their fields by increasingly erratic weather patterns that devastate their crops, more Nepali farmers are migrating in search of new livelihoods. But their escape from one climate disaster lands them in another, with rising temperatures in the Gulf exacerbating already dangerous working conditions.

This policy note compares the healthcare coverage for migrant workers in the six GCC states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. This report solely examines the legal provisions and does not evaluate migrant workers’ actual access to healthcare or the quality of services received.

With the CEO of the UAE’s national oil company set to preside over the COP28 talks later this year, the Vital Signs partnership’s latest report lays bare how migrant workers in the Gulf are already experiencing the deadly effects of extreme temperatures