I spent a few hours in at the Dubai airport this summer and confirmed at least two things I had heard about the place. Very glitzy and full of South Asians.
From the moment we taxied into the gate (and the guy guiding us in was a desi), to the airline transfer desk officer to the duty-free clerks to the cleaners throughout the airport, we kept seeing desi after desi after desi. And, of course, lots of the travelers themselves were South Asian. Looked to me as if very few native Dubai-wallahs were actually doing much of the work, especially the menial work.
In today's New York Times, Jason deParle has a major story looking at the labor situation in Dubai.
Many rich countries, including the United States, rely on cheap foreign workers. But no country is as dependent as the United Arab Emirates, where foreigners make up about 85 percent of the population and 99 percent of the private work force. From bankers to barbers, there are 4.5 million foreigners here, compared with 800,000 Emirati citizens, according to the Ministry of Labor. About two-thirds of the foreigners are South Asians, including most of the 1.2 million construction workers.
He reports, in detail, about the recent labor unrest and the problems suffered by the migrant workers.
Among those buffeted by recent events is Sami Yullah, a 24-year-old pipe fitter from Pakistan, who arrived four years ago. Like many workers, he paid nearly a year’s salary in illegal recruiter’s fees, despite laws here that require employers to bear all the hiring costs. In exchange, he was promised a job building sewer systems at a monthly salary of about $225, nearly twice what he earned at home.
There's also a photo gallery, by Tyler Hicks. Among the captions:
Workers live in labor camps far from the prosperous, cosmopolitan world of Dubai. They spend years away from their families, work in extreme heat and earn only about $1 an hour.
See the rest of the photos here, read the story and post your comments below.
