By Jimmy Chin
ICYMI over break, NYU professor Andrew Ross, a labor expert and critic of the exploitation of migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates, was denied entry into the UAE on March 14 as he attempted to board a flight to Abu Dhabi.
Ross learned the news at JFK when UAE officials cited security concerns for his travel ban. He had intended to spend his spring break there to conduct research on low-wage workers in the UAE.
“A lot of folks studying migrant labor in the UAE have been barred or deported,” Ross said. “The difference is I’m an NYU professor. NYU professors are supposed to be guaranteed safe passage, as are students. That’s the basic agreement on academic freedom.”
University spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement that in five years of NYU in Abu Dhabi, the faculty and students have experienced “zero infringements” on their academic freedom.
“But it is also the case that regardless of where NYU or any other university operates, it is the government that controls visa and immigration policy, and not the university,” Beckman added.
Ross is also head of the NYU chapter of the American Association of University Professors and a founding member of the Coalition for Fair Labor (CFL) student-alliance at NYU.
Kristina Bogos, a CAS senior and student leader in the CFL, said the ban was unacceptable and the group would fight for Ross’ right to enter the UAE.
“Even if NYUAD students and faculty have experienced ‘zero infringements’ on academic freedom as the university administration claims, this does not excuse the travel ban imposed on Dr. Andrew Ross,” she said. “CFL will continue to urge the administration to seriously address the travel ban imposed on Andrew Ross and take the necessary steps to lift it.”
This was not the first incident in which Ross had been targeted. Six weeks ago, Ross learned that a private investigator had been hired to “dig up dirt” on him. He also recounted how he had been tailed by car in his last visit to the country.
“The last time I was doing research in the UAE, my colleagues and I were followed,” Ross said. “It’s fair to conclude that they were commissioned because of my research.”
The university announced on Wednesday that Andrew Hamilton would replace Sexton as NYU’s next president shortly after the incident. Ross said: “many people have concluded that this is an effort to change the story.”
Even though the story broke during spring break, people are active. The department chairs of CAS, faculty senators, and the Senate Executive Committee, among others, have drafted letters to the president asking for a response to the incident.
NYU in Abu Dhabi has been criticized since it was learned that migrant workers constructing the campus were mistreated. The school has distanced itself from the labor practices by shifting responsibility to the university-employed contractor, but NYU trustee Khaldoon Al Mubarak is CEO of the hired general contractor, Mubadala Development Company.
Shortly after the revelations the university commissioned an investigative firm, Nardello & Company, to review labor conditions at NYU Abu Dhabi. The move has been criticized because Daniel Nardello, CEO of the company, is a NYU Law graduate.
