Dubai's low-paid Asian laborers voice their woes

DUBAI -- Poorly-paid Asian workers whose labor is vital to the construction boom in the United Arab Emirates flexed their muscles in a rare strike in the latest show of frustration over pay and poor living conditions.

"We are on strike... We want better salaries," said one Indian laborer as he stood at the gate of a shabby housing compound, defying threats by officials that striking workers could be deported.

The laborers had since Saturday staged illegal demonstrations in the booming emirate of Dubai, while some were accused of committing acts of vandalism while demanding an increase in their wages.

Labor protests are rare in the oil-rich UAE, where strike action is outlawed and workers are not allowed to form trade unions.

But conditions are difficult and pay is low.

Construction workers toil for long hours under blazing sun in the desert emirate, where temperatures exceed 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in the summer, and humidity is stifling for most of the year.

Each day, crowds of laborers queue at the end of their shifts near their work sites to get on buses lacking any air conditioning to shuttle them to their dust-engulfed distant accommodation for few hours of sleep.

Migrant workers who remain on a work visa for the duration of their stay also can never get permanent residency and must leave the country once their contract is terminated.

Surrounded by dozens of fellow workers around midday in their accommodation in Sonapur labor camp on the outskirts of Dubai on Tuesday, the Indian worker who did not give his name said he was willing to return home if their demand for a wage increase is not met.

"We go home," said simultaneously several workers who could speak a few words of English or Arabic.

Some 2,000 workers were still on strike in this compound late on Tuesday but it was not clear whether they were continuing their protest on Wednesday.

Sonapur, land of gold in Hindi, is a complex of a three-storey rundown building and long bungalows rented by their employer. They house tens of thousands of low-paid migrant workers in a desert area several kilometers (miles) from Dubai's high-rises.

The men pointed to a notice posted at the entrance in which the company promises that two doctors will start visiting the accommodation regularly, while it will begin to pay for the cost of air conditioning and cooking gas, both so far paid for by workers.

"There is no (mention of) salaries" in the notice, said the Indian worker, and that is why the three-day-old strike will continue.

The men said that an unskilled worker earns a monthly wage of just 500 dirhams ($136) while a skilled worker is paid 700 dirhams ($190). They are demanding an increase to 900 dirhams and 1,200 dirhams respectively.

But these construction workers say they did not take to the streets like others, reportedly blocking a road which leads to Jebel Ali port, one of the world's largest free zones.

"No demonstrations (here)," answered some workers suspiciously when asked about the street protests, which reportedly prompted a decision to deport the strikers.

One official said 4,000 strikers would be deported but another denied any move to a mass deportation.

In a neighboring building which houses workers from another company, Bangladeshi laborer Mahmud Jauil, 24, complained that his 500 dirhams monthly wage is barely enough to live on.

"Company does not provide us with food or water. We drink tap water," he said standing in the inner court of the three-storey building, crisscrossed by washing lines.

Workers, resting ahead of their 10-hour night shifts, slept in bunk beds lined against the walls of a 16-square-meter (170-square-foot) room which houses between eight and 10 workers.

Mohammad Taleb, also from Bangladesh, said his move to Dubai cost him 10,000 dirhams ($2,700) in fees to recruitment agents. Yet he earns only 500 dirhams a month, working six days per week.

Pakistani Mohammad, 26, who is a steel fixer, makes more because of his skills, earning a total of 800 dirhams ($215) a month, including 100 dirhams for overtime work.

But the three workers distanced themselves from protest acts, which would lead to cancelling their work visas and consequently being expelled.

An estimated 700,000 Asians work as construction laborers in the UAE, where only about 20 percent of the four million population are UAE citizens.

In March last year, 2,500 laborers rioted at the construction site of Burj Dubai, which has since become the world's tallest skyscraper.

The incident prompted Human Rights Watch (HRW) to issue a statement calling on the UAE government to "end abusive labor practices" and describing labor conditions as "less than human.”

Last November, UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum ordered sweeping measures to protect the rights of foreign laborers.

In August around 500 foreign workers protested over low pay and poor working conditions. The strike broke up and the remaining demonstrators returned to work after around 24 were deported. - Agence France-Presse through INQUIRER.net, October 31, 2007