Hacker News Reader

Comment by scottmcf | Hacker News Reader

Don't they often take their passports and prevent them from leaving?

Who do you mean by “they”? Unscrupulous private companies with criminal managers that break the law?

A company taking a person’s passport is explicitly illegal in the UAE: https://dubaihow.com/holding-passport-employee-uae/

It carries a criminal prison sentence and a fine. And there’s a big push by the UAE government to go after, and prosecute employers who break this law.

I don’t know why people in Western countries, always without fail, mention this whenever the UAE comes up.

Imagine every time the US was mentioned, a person always pointed out how some private companies in the US treated their employees poorly and abusively (which I’m sure happens). It would be absurd.

You're spot on, as an Israeli I wanted to thank you for highlighting this. There are individuals in every country who perform illegal acts, that should not reflect on the country as a whole. Shukran ya habibi.

In Israel we have a lot of love for the UAE. Together, we're already sharing agra-tech, water-tech, and finance. Israel is looking forward to learning about some of the construction methods being pioneered in building up the desert. This is an unbelievably warm peace.

What you're referring to happens in Saudi Arabia and Qatar (and used to happen until the mid 2000s in the UAE, when a Federal decree was passed which stated the criminal sentence explicitly). Saudi Arabia and Qatar haven't abolished the practice.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com