This briefing by Equidem documents the experiences of African migrant workers employed in e-commerce and app-based delivery platforms in the United Arab Emirates. Based on testimonies from 13 workers originating from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Cameroon, and Sudan, the report exposes a hidden labour system marked by recruitment debt, deceptive hiring practices, excessive working hours, wage insecurity, racial discrimination, and barriers to seeking remedy.

The briefing is timed to inform negotiations at the International Labour Conference (ILC) on new global standards for decent work in the platform economy, and calls for a Convention that ensures that future protections explicitly cover migrant workers employed through subcontracting chains and third-party logistics firms — workers who are among the most vulnerable in the digital economy yet remain largely invisible in current policy debates.