FEATURE: Dubai’s gleaming skyscrapers conceal labor abuse

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2008/05/26/2003412962

AP, DUBAI
Monday, May 26, 2008, Page 11

The 22 men in “trailer 10” work the morning shift at a construction site, then take turns shopping, cooking and cleaning. They pray together. When one returns to India on leave, he carries family presents and cash for the others.

“We all come from the Punjab” in northern India, said Pavinder Singh, a 42-year-old carpenter from the trailer in a camp that houses about 3,000 workers on the desert outskirts of Dubai.


Indian laborers spend their weekend relaxing at their trailer cabin in a labor camp in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 22.
PHOTO: AP

“But what makes us like a family is what we have to endure here together,” he said.

The astonishing building boom in Dubai, which has made it one of the world’s fastest-growing cities, has been fueled by the labor of about 700,000 foreigners — almost all from poor, rural villages in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The workers’ meager wages still go far in their native lands. Two or three years in Dubai could mean building a house for their family, buying a plot of land or sending children to school. Yet many men escape poverty back home only to find themselves trapped in near servitude here.

Human rights groups have for years decried the harsh conditions of foreign laborers in Dubai, along with the rest of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the gulf. But the problem only drew widespread attention after strikes by thousands of workers this year and last.

Some recent protests turned violent — in mid-March, police arrested at least 500 South Asian workers who smashed office windows and set cars ablaze in neighboring Sharjah.

Dubai officials were embarrassed by the bad press. But despite promises of reform, there are still problems.

FULL story at link.