The Slaves of Dubai

I should have done this a long time ago as it is not new. Dubai is the richest of the emirats of the UAE. The city of Dubai is famous for its luxurious hotel and its wealthy economy based on petrol ressources. Dubai is trying to diversify its economy by developping tourism and becoming a business pole in the region. New developments are emerging everywhere in the city: Amongst them, skyscrappers lodging offices, 5 to 7 stars hotels and apartments, but also sports palace, artificial islands, private residence etc etc...

A couple of months ago, I watched on TV5 Monde a french documentary about the building site workers in Dubai. Today, I read on BBC news that those workers have started a strike to complain about their working conditions and salaries. Please visit the BBC website.

Dubai: One of the richest place in the world is underpaying those who build it. They are so rich, everybody is closing their eyes on all their slavery activities.

This Emirat is importing labour forces mainly from China, India and Pakistan, attracting them with good contracts, the building companies are even advancing the money for their trip to Dubai. These offers are hard to refuse for those poor people who lives with less than a dollar a day. Some hope to come back after a couple of years with their savings for a fresh start in their native country; Other dont have enough money to support their family, they also accept to go to work in Dubai.

Their dreams dont last long. At their arrival in Dubai, their passeport is immediately confiscated. The new contracts they are forced to sign at their arrivals have changed. Less money, more working hours, no over time paid. They have only the right to shut up. The labourers can't go back as their employers only advanced the money for a single trip, the return ticket is too expensive for them to pay. Stuck, they are forced to work in awfull working conditions. A minimum of 12 working hours per day but it is often more, under extremly high temperatures. Living conditions are mot acceptable either. The workers are packed into prefab building and camps outside the city If a worker injures himself on the building site, companies are not responsible for their medical cares. If a worker dies on the building site...these companies are wiping their hands too. When a worker commit suicide, he is accused of being alcoholic or junky. It is impossible to track records of all the casualities as the figures are hidden or modified to an acceptable but untrue rates.

Example of salaries paid by companies implanted in Dubai, mainly run by locals but also by foreign companies.
Skilled carpenter: from US$7.60 per day.
Labourers: $4 per day.
Millions of labourers have migrated to the Dubai emirat.
(Source are BBC news)

Those facts and others are ignored by most of us in the western world. Going to Dubai, or promoting it is the same as supporting a state which violates daily human rights. Boycott Dubay!
Feel free to check the links below. Thanks for reading my blog.

Links:
The wikipedia: Dubai
Human trafficking and modern-day slavery
BCC: Migrants' woes in Dubai worker camps
BCC: Strike halts work at Dubai tower