About 30 students staged a sit-in at New York University on Monday to protest against mistreatment of workers who built the university’s Abu Dhabi campus in the United Arab Emirates.



The mistreatment of the workers has been documented by the New York Times and the Guardian, and in three progress reports from Human Rights Watch, one of which was published earlier this year.

Workers were living more than a dozen to a room, and working 11-hour days, according to the reports. The workers said their wages were delayed and were lower than promised. The Human Rights Watch report found that some employers were “withholding workers’ wages and benefits, failing to reimburse them for recruiting fees, confiscating worker’s passports, and housing them in substandard accommodations.” The report went on to say that some contractors informed the United Arab Emirates of a workers’ strike, which led to the deportation of hundreds of workers.



The students – who were occupying the 11th floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, one floor below the NYU president’s office – demanded that school officials meet them between 12 April and 24 April to discuss their concerns about conditions in Abu Dhabi, and their demands for university to live up to its its ideal “as a sanctuary”.

“The main thing that we are emphasizing right now is NYU [being] complicit in the deportations of more than 200 workers from United Arab Emirates to Bangladesh and Pakistan,” said Jonah Walters, 21, who is a senior at NYU and a member of student labor action movement Slam. “We want NYU to pay reparations to compensate for the stolen wages and loss of opportunities.”

Students participating in the sit-in included members of Slam, the Coalition for Fair Labor at NYU and Law Students for Economic Justice.

After about 30 to 45 minutes of action, the students were asked to leave. They were told that since it was not term-time there was no one there to schedule their appointment.

Senior Kristina Bogos, 22, first became aware of the issue when she studied at the Abu Dhabi campus in 2013, visiting one of the labor camps and speaking to construction workers.

“NYU has yet to meaningfully address any of the abuses that have occurred and we are outraged and we are fed up that they are not taking these violations seriously,” she said.

Students protest the treatment of workers in Abu Dhabi. Photograph: Leo Gertner

The students have received support from select members of the faculty.

“These workers have suffered a lot and they deserve to be compensated,” said Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU , who has been barred from entering the United Arab Emirates after speaking out about the use of underpaid migrant laborers and their treatment.

Students who handed over the petition with more than 600 signatures say it is not too late to “redress these wrongs”. Their petition asked the university to compensate the workers who were jailed and deported, amend the university’s statement of labor values to recognize rights of workers on all campuses, publicly disclose the code of conduct for labor standards at the Abu Dhabi campus, and appoint an independent monitor of labor compliance.

The university would not say whether it would schedule a meeting with the students, only that it will wait to address their concerns until after its investigation has concluded.

“We set high standards for the work conditions for those constructing the NYU Abu Dhabi campus. And, as the university said when it wrote this group last month, we take seriously any suggestions that those standards were not adhered to,” NYU spokesman John Beckman told the Guardian.

“Nardello & Co, an international investigation firm, was appointed to independently evaluate these allegations. We await their findings and will have more to say at that time. It is premature to address specific remedies until the report is released.”

The university first announced that it would investigate reports of worker mistreatment in May 2014. In June, it was announced that Nardello & Co. would conduct the investigation.

The students who staged the sit-in expressed skepticism over what the report would find.

“I share that skepticism,” Ross told the Guardian over the phone after the sit-in. “Nardello himself is an NYU alumni, and it would be best for everyone if NYU had chosen someone who didn’t have a conflict of interest with their alma mater.”

Beckman said: “Mr Nardello’s long career as an attorney, a federal prosecutor, and the head of leading and reputable investigations firm seems far more relevant than his having graduated from NYU law school many years ago.”

It’s not just Nardello’s ties to the school that worry the activists. The company has a history of clearing the names of its clients, said Ross.

“It’s what they specialize in,” he said. “Most of all, if you are investigating allegations of workers who had been beaten and deported, you have to go talk to those workers. I can’t prejudge it, but I very much doubt if Nardello had been in India and Bangladesh interviewing those workers.”

With the assistance of the International Trade Union Confederation, the groups raising awareness of the issue on campus have been in touch with the workers for whom they are attempting to obtain compensation. Students would also like to speak with the workers currently working on the Abu Dhabi campus about their treatment and working conditions.

“It’s unlikely that that will happen if our poor organizer keeps getting barred from entering the country,” said Walters.