Gulf States Urged to Shield Workers From Extreme Heat

Gulf Cooperation Council countries are exposing migrant workers to yet another deadly summer of extreme heat conditions without adequate protection, Human Rights Watch said today. The countries ignore the scientific evidence on the limitations of calendar-based midday work bans to shield workers from heat-related health risks.

"Every summer reveals that the climate crisis aggravates the occupational health and safety catastrophe for the millions of migrant workers dangerously exposed to extreme heat in the Gulf states," said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Because Gulf states are dragging their feet on evidence-based labor protections, migrant workers are unnecessarily dying, experiencing kidney failure, and suffering from other chronic illnesses."

From July 2024 to May 2025, Human Rights Watch interviewed 19 migrant workers based in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, and Kuwait. Human Rights Watch also interviewed hundreds of workers in 2023 and 2024 on extreme heatrisks.

One notable reform during this past year was Bahrain's 2025 cabinet decision to extend the summer midday bans to three months, from June 15 to September 15, instead of July 1 to August 31. While the decision is positive, it only brings Bahrain's policy into line with other Gulf states.

Calendar-based bans are insufficient as extreme heat occurs outside the hours or months when the ban is in effect. A study found that the highest heat intensity for workers in Saudi Arabia was from 9 a.m. to noon, while the ban is in effect between noon and 3 p.m., and that workers employed by companies complying with the work ban still experienced high heat exposure. Another study, in Kuwait, found a substantial increase in the risk of occupational injuries associated with extremely hot temperatures, despite the ban.

In May 2025, Dubai recorded its highest temperature two days in a row, reaching 51.6 degrees Celsius (124.88 Fahrenheit), breaking its previous record of 50.2 degrees Celsius (122.36 degrees Fahrenheit) set in 2009. There were similar reports in Kuwait.

These extreme heat conditions are now more frequent and earlier, in May. The midday ban in the UAE, Kuwait, and others comes into effect only from June 15. Temperatures have also soared in Saudi Arabia and Oman.

A former Saudi-based construction worker said that they adjusted work schedules during summer months to start at 4 a.m. "By 8 a.m., it got very hot but by 10, it was unbearable," he said.

His employer deducted wages if workers were caught resting during work hours and two days' wages for every workday missed. "During my two years in Saudi Arabia, my wages were deducted twice when I was caught resting," he said." During midday bans, we slept at the rest area but there was no AC or refrigerator for our food, which often went bad. However, we had access to cold water."

Extreme heat exposure is a serious health hazard. It can cause heat rash, cramps, heat exhaustion, or heat stroke, which can be fatal or have lifelong consequences, such as end-stage renal failure.

A Saudi-based worker said he had three nosebleeds in the summer of 2024, "My nose bled more this year than previous years," he said. "Once you go to a shaded area and rest, the bleeding stops. When it bleeds too much, you cannot work."

A Kuwait-based electrician said: "I feel dizziness, vomiting, head pain, and blurry vision many times. Many people fall down because of heat. Not only people, but you can also see birds dropping dead while flying because of heat … In construction sites, workers sometimes fall or faint. I too fainted several times two years ago when I worked in an airport runway line."

Instead of calendar-based midday bans, which experts have described as a "minimum necessity" until more robust measures are introduced, governments and businesses should use risk-based measures such as the widely used Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) index, which measures occupational heat stress based on air temperature and relative humidity.

Only Qatar, in 2021, has introduced the index and even then only as an upper threshold of 32.1 degrees Celsius (89.78 degree Fahrenheit) to stop outdoor work, but the threshold is too high and enforcement gaps remain. Even wet bulb temperatures between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius have resulted in severe heat strain in humans, according to a recent academic study.

Workers' ability to rest, rehydrate, and recover from heat exposure depends on, among others things, access to shaded rest areas, cold water, proper nutrition, air-conditioned accommodations, and transportation services, Human Rights Watch has documented.

Problems in worker accommodations include long wait times to use kitchens and bathrooms, the absence of cold water for a shower, and delayed company responses to repair broken air conditioning in crowded migrant worker rooms. A Saudi-based worker said, "It feels like we are waking up tired and taking an exhausted body to work."

Some occupation-specific factors can make workers over-exert themselves. Two Kuwait-based delivery drivers - a bike rider and a car driver - said it is hard to meet their monthly delivery targets, without which their salaries are reduced. Heat makes the work particularly difficult for bike riders as phones turn off in extreme heat, heat mirages make the road appear blurry, and tires melt.

"In the last month, I fell down twice," the bike rider said. "When 49-degree hot air hits your face how do you feel? I compare my job … with a desert camel. We don't have any option. We have to drink water and run." He welcomed Kuwait's extension of midday work bans for bike riders from June 1 and said: "I wish delivery targets were also reduced because it will be further challenging to meet them as all bike riders will now take up the evening and night shifts."

Human Rights Watch has written to all six Gulf states about their heat protection plans. The UAE emphasized the high compliance of the midday work ban by companies and penalties for non-compliance without addressing queries regarding strengthening the policy itself. The other countries did not provide substantive responses.

Immediate steps the Gulf states can take include adopting risk-based, cost-effective heat protection measures such as the WBGT with appropriate thresholds based on work intensity to impose evidence-based work-rest schedules, ensuring access to water, and providing shaded rest areas.

Evidence indicates that there is also a robust "business case" for better heat protections as they enable support workers to be more productive, safer, and healthier, Human Rights Watch said.

The bans or restrictions on trade unions in Gulf states, along with severe limitations on free expression and access to worksites, undermines the strong coalition needed between policymakers, occupational health professionals, employers, civil society, worker representatives, and trade unions to achieve critical worker protections, including extreme heat risks.

"Gulf states have the capacity and expertise to play a leading role on the global issue of heat protection instead of enforcing a reality where experts self-censor and migrant workers fear losing their livelihoods if they speak up about risks that could cost them their lives," Page said.

The following table is adapted from Migrant-Rights.org.