Art world protest over 'mistreatment' of migrants at Abu Dhabi cultural hub

British Museum in the spotlight as fears grow over 'mistreatment' of South Asian workers

David Batty

A coalition of international artists has begun a year-long protest against the mistreatment and exploitation of migrant workers building Abu Dhabi's £17bn cultural hub, including the world's largest Guggenheim and a branch of the Louvre.

Every week for the next year members of Gulf Labor will show a piece of work that highlights the plight of South Asian workers on Saadiyat Island (the Island of Happiness), where three "starchitect" designed museums will rise among a complex of five-star beach resorts and luxury villas.

The protest, which includes Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn and Lebanese artist Walid Raad, comes amid mounting concern about conditions on the island, which this summer saw riots by migrant workers. Labourers striking over poor terms and wages were also deported by a major contractor, Arabtec, earlier this year, while an annual report on the situation by the construction project's auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, expected in September, has yet to be published.

Lebanese artist Doris Bittar, who is collating a Facebook exhibition of art on migrant workers, said the "52 Weeks" campaign had been launched because the situation had reached breaking point. Bittar, an art lecturer at California State University San Marcos, accused the international museums involved in Saadiyat, including the British Museum – the consulting partner to the Sheikh Zayed National Museum – of being blind. She said they were more nervous about damage to their reputations than workers' rights.

Recent attempts by the Louvre and the Guggenheim to buy or show work by Gulf Labor artists had raised fears the museums were trying to undermine their campaign, she added. "These artists who make up the core of Gulf Labor have refused and are standing firm. Artists, curators and galleries should seriously consider boycotting these institutions to send a clear message. Some of the migrant labourers are going home in caskets. Do we, as artists, really want to be a party to that?"

Mumbai-based artists Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran are asking the Indian government to intervene in cases of abuse involving migrant workers in Abu Dhabi. They have also made videos that show how isolated the workers' village is on Saadiyat. Sukumaran said: "Imagine a whole city made predominantly of workers camps … many surrounded with fences and mostly off-limits to outsiders. This is what Abu Dhabi, and other parts of the UAE and the Gulf are like, but also, much worse, are being designed as. What kind of cultural implications this has, what kind of society this imagines, is a question to be asked urgently."

Saadiyat Island has suffered repeated delays to construction and financial concerns amid international criticism since Human Rights Watch first raised worries about workers' conditions in a report in 2009. Gulf Labor launched an artists' boycott of the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim in 2011 and last year project insiders and art experts said the emirate should scale back its plans, possibly even scrapping the Guggenheim museum.

In response to international criticism, the emirate's Tourism Development and Investment Company, which runs Saadiyat, commissioned PwC to independently monitor workers' conditions. The accountancy giant's first report, published in September 2012, highlighted a range of labour abuses, including that around three quarters of workers had paid recruitment fees to secure their jobs and poor sanitation and faulty air conditioning in the specially constructed workers village.

Although the TDIC said the report showed that improvements had been made, this August saw violent clashes among migrant labourers, reportedly provoked by the deportation of strikers and the hiring of "scab" workers.

Forty people were taken to hospital and 25 arrested after dozens of workers were attacked with sticks, beaten with metal bars and hit with hammers, according to news website 7 Days in Dubai. Although Arabtec said the brawl between Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers was an ethnic dispute, human rights activists said the deportations and hiring violated the right to strike. as defined by the International Labour Organisation.

Nicholas McGeehan, Gulf researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: "We have received reports from credible local sources that there are still serious problems at Saadiyat. There have been press reports of violent riots on the Saadiyat site and Arabtec, a major contractor, deported a significant number of workers from other projects in April, after workers went on strike due to complaints over wages. Moreover, there has been no independent auditors report since September 2012."

The TDIC did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for PwC said work on their follow up monitoring report was under way. But she did not clarify when it would be published.

The British Museum said it had discussed workers' rights with the TDIC: "We are aware of the incident between rival gangs of workers in August and understand this was dealt with by Abu Dhabi police. We are not aware of any violent disputes regarding pay or working conditions on Saadiyat Island."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/02/abu-dhabi-culture-guggenheim-louvre-workers-rights