progress with respect to access to justice for migrant workers as states have yet to come to grips with the prevalence of the issue. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) saw changes in their justice systems – arranging for civil disputes to be resolved via digital courts. The UAE introduced e-Trials in 20171 across a range of civil disputes. The e-Trials for civil disputes were intended to fast-track civil trials and facilitate reciprocal judicial cooperation treaties signed among Gulf countries, France, China, India and Egypt. In 2018, it launched the Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) courts as fully-fledged digital courts and end-to-end telejustice system 2 . The ADGM Courts allow for access 24/7 from anywhere in the world, regardless of geographical or time boundaries. Corporate legal teams can register, submit documents, file and pay online, and utilize Skype-enabled trial hearings from remote locations. During the pandemic, the government further opened virtual courts for criminal cases in April 2020 3 due to the pandemic. While all labour cases are held online, since many workers were not technically savvy Al Adheed centres provide special rooms for them to attend and see their cases being conducted. In August, the Dubai Foundation for Woman and Children reported virtual court trials were being carried out for victims of abuse at the foundation. In general, if any judicial body wishes to investigate a case involving a victim at the shelter, the authority will just have to send a link to the foundation so that a hearing can be done at the tele-trials chamber. During the session, an image of the victim and that of the representative of the authorities would appear on the screen. Files can be exchanged, and the session is kept in electronic records4. A recent paper by Gibril Faal for the Abu Dhabi Dialogue Senior Officials Meeting (2021) highlighted the fast-tracking of disputes/cases of workers through technology and the use of online courts and legal procedures. He states that the formality/rigidity of court administration as well as the power imbalance in the employee-employer relationships ‘inherent in migrant labour relations’ as the two broad factors that detrimentally affect reform measures for justice systems. A pertinent question that arises is if virtual court trials are being used for commercial dispute resolution, and why it cannot be applied to deliver rights and entitlements of migrant workers – this is relevant to the Justice for Wage Theft campaign. Due to the ‘privity of contract’ principle, legal complaints are generally restricted to individual complaints. With restrictions on trade unionism and collective bargaining, access to justice for group and collective grievances is limited. As such, it is important that State authorities, regulators and support institutions proactively deploy technology and digital tools to prevent injustice against migrant workers. (Faal, 2021) Considering the willingness of the government to extend such services to civil society organisations such as the DFWAC, the possibility of extending the use of virtual courts for victims of wage theft through community organisations or Missions must be seriously considered. For those still in the COD as well as for returnees and repatriated migrant workers, digitised labour courts, with its various benefits would also allow for automated archiving and document retrieval; easy access to past judgments and analytical data on orders and awards, to reduce bias and disparities in judgements. 1 Al Marzouqi, Mohamed. November 2017. Introducing smart e-Trials into the UAE judicial system. Al Tamimi & Company, Abu Dhabi. 2 14 August 2018. Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Courts: Pioneering digital transformation in the legal and justice system. Microsoft News. 3 The National. 5 April 2020. Virtual courts to dispense digital justice in Abu Dhabi. 4 4 August 2020. Khaleej Times. Remote trails launched for victims of abuse in Dubai. 5