ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the drivers, challenges and issues on the rights of the African migrant worker that for historical comparison purposes it addresses as the “contemporary African coolie” in the Middle East. As a major destination for both semi-skilled and unskilled African labor force in the last ten years, emigration of especially young people from the African continent into this region has been driven by limited employment, economic, political, social and environmental factors. The findings from this review also indicate that emigration to the Middle East is not always self-facilitating. A proportion of the African migrants to the Middle East are victims of human trafficking. Nonetheless, migrant work is stimulating development back home in Africa as a result of increased cash remittances. Weak legislation and regulation of African migrant work in the Middle East, historically entrenched relations and development factors define issues around the labor rights of African migrant work in the Middle East.
