Labour rights are a work in progress

Protections for workers in the UAE have been expanded in recent years. But one area that still needs attention is the practice by which some migrant workers are made to pay large fees to agencies in their home countries.

In a 2009 report on Saadiyat Island, Human Rights Watch blamed labour-supply agencies, construction companies and repressive laws for "a cycle of abuse that leaves migrant workers deeply indebted, badly paid, and unable to stand up for their rights".

Two years later, as The National reported last week, an independent company will investigate the conditions of more than 10,000 labourers hired to work on the island as they build branches of the Guggenheim and Louvre museums. The auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has been retained to keep tabs on work conditions, a move the rights group called "a positive step".

It is not every day we agree with the findings of an outside advocacy group, since many such reports are focused as much on shock value as facts on the ground. But in this case it's hard not to concur. That the move comes amid a period in which the Government is responding to labour concerns with increased vigour is all the more encouraging.

And yet, positive steps forward are no reason to stop moving towards even more labour protections. Monitoring alone will not protect low-paid workers on other projects from debt, mistreatment or both.

The most immediate overhaul needed is the elimination of costly fees that workers are charged even before they set foot in the UAE. These hidden taxes can amount to months of wages, and despite rules outlawing the practice, enforcement is not universal. In truth, labourers from countries with few job opportunities may be more than willing to pay high fees, but their need for a job should not turn them into victims.

Foreign governments, contractors and recruiting firms must all work together to eliminate this practice. Workers duped into paying should be reimbursed.

A precedent was set early last year when New York University and Abu Dhabi spelled out labour rights for those working on NYU's permanent campus in Saadiyat.

But the university's rules should also be met with an increased will from the developers and the sub-contractors themselves to safeguard the rights of their workers. It is past time to focus on inspections and transparency, as well as coordination with labour-supplying countries, to protect those building this nation from the ground up.