The Exploitation of Immigrant Workers in the Middle East

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Jay Johnson, a world traveler, a professional in the Health Care business, and a human rights activist. One of his main research fields is the exploitation of immigrant workers in the Middle East – a phenomenon that he has witnessed first-hand in his travels. Visit his website, gcchumanrights.org, which is dedicated to improving working conditions for immigrants and the rights of citizens in general in Gulf Cooperation Council nations.

FP: Jay Johnson, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

I would like to talk to you today about the exploitation of immigrant workers in the Middle East

But first, give us a bit of background about yourself and how you came to be interested in the rights of immigrant workers in the Middle East.

Johnson: Thank you Jamie for the opportunity to be interviewed in Frontpage Magazine.

I am native to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and work as a computer consultant in the Healthcare industry. For several years, I have had the opportunity to visit Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia, including India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

During my travels, I found the Indians, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankans to be very hospitable people. Of course, they have had their own internal problems for a long time – India versus Pakistan, political conflicts in Sri Lanka, etc. However, when it came to outside visitors they have been quite hospitable. I found the people of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh) have been very intelligent, compassionate, and honest.

During those same visits to South Asia, I also had the opportunity to visit Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc. – the Gulf Cooperation Council states. There I found the condition of South Asian immigrants to be so intolerable that people in the outside world need to know about it and push their governments to exert pressure for reasonable change in that inhumane situation.

FP: What is the Gulf Cooperation Council? Why are there South Asian Immigrants in those countries? And why should the United States and the Western World be concerned?

Johnson: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a political and economic union of the Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf and located on the Arabian Peninsula, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE). All these six states are extremely wealthy, and they are the allies of the United States, Great Britain, and the Western World. Crude oil and natural gas are their main exports and the source of their great wealth.

The elite in these countries are so wealthy that they send their luxury cars to London for oil change (6,500 miles round trip).

The GCC Member States are our allies, friends of the United States and NATO. Without the military and political support of the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, these nations either would cease to exist or would have to risk the strings attached to seeking aid from Russia or China. Particularly, the United States has enormous political influence among the leaders of these nations.

There are nearly fifteen million immigrants in these countries. Most of these immigrants are Muslims from Islamic countries. Even the majority of immigrants from India are Muslims, since India actually is home to more Muslims than any other nation. Of course, there are also Hindu and Christian immigrants from India, and Christian immigrants from the Philippines as well as Kenya and Ethiopia in Africa. All these immigrants to the GCC Member States are treated in an inhumane manner that no one should have to endure. (...)