Dubai146;s first: army of workers riot

For Rajee Kumaran, this was the city of dreams. Many workers, at sites like this in Dubai, paid corrupt recruiters high fees to get to the Emirates, ending up in cramped camps earning low pay.

For Rajee Kumaran, this was the city of dreams. Many workers, at sites like this in Dubai, paid corrupt recruiters high fees to get to the Emirates, ending up in cramped camps earning low pay. Dubai8217;s gleaming highrises, idyllic beaches and seemingly limitless opportunities glittered on the pages of brochures and in the stories told by labourers returning home to his native Kerala, India. But after five years here, surviving in squalid conditions and barely making ends meet, Kumaran, 28, says his dream has long since faded.

8220;I thought this was the land of opportunity, but I was fooled,8221; he said.

When hundreds of workers angered by low salaries and mistreatment rioted on Tuesday night at the site of what is to become the world8217;s tallest skyscraper, not only were they expressing the growing frustration of Asian migrants, they offered a glimpse of an increasingly organised labour force.

Of the 1.5 million residents of Dubai, as many as a million are immigrants who have come to work and most of them are construction workers, said Hadi Ghaemi, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, citing government statistics. A vast majority of the immigrants come from the Indian subcontinent and the Philippines.

Far from the towers and luxury hotels, these workers live in cramped labour camps with low pay and increasing desperation. With the cost of living rising, many have abandoned dreams of returning home with a fortune. The camps, in particular, have been set up ever deeper in the desert, adding an hour or two to the usual 12-hr shifts just to commute to the job site.

A growing number have resorted to suicide: last year, 84 South Asians committed suicide in Dubai, according to the Indian Consulate8212;up from 70 in 2004. Kumaran, who earns 550 dirhams every month, or about 150, sends home almost half his earnings. That is barely enough to pay for food, cigarettes and phonecalls. He is not sure how he will repay the loan he took to get here.

Since last September, when 800 workers staged a protest march down a main highway in the heart of the city and set off a national debate about the treatment of foreign workers, labourers have held at least eight major strikes to demand their rights and get their pay, which is sometimes withheld.

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But the mass action on Tuesday was the most significant of its kind. Hundreds of workers building the Burj Dubai skyscraper chased security guards and broke into offices, smashing computers, scattering files, wrecking cars and construction machines. When they returned to work the next day, thousands of labourers building an airport terminal across town laid down their tools. The workers also halted work on Thursday, until a settlement was negotiated.

Those workers have few rights. Visa sponsors and employers confiscate their passports and residency permits when they sign on, restricting their freedom of movement and their ability to report abuse. Most pay money to recruiters to find work here, a practice that the UAE government has sought to stop. When they get here, few can leave the country without the permission of their employers, who can block them from working elsewhere in the country if they resign or are fired. Unionising is forbidden, too, and most workers have no recourse other than the Labour Ministry. Denial of wages is the most common abuse8212;contracting companies typically wait to pay workers until they themselves get paid.

The UAE8217;s Ministry of Labour has tried to tackle the problem, making changes meant to allow workers to change employers more easily and imposing strict penalties on employers who do not pay workers. 8220;We always support the workers and want to protect their rights, but we must protect employers8217; rights as well,8221; said Ali al-Kaabi, Labour Minister in the UAE.

Flanked by his co-workers, as he boards a bus to his construction site, Kumaran looks up at Dubai8217;s skyline with a degree of sadness. 8220;I wish the rich people would realise who is building these towers. I wish they could come and see how sad this life is.8221;

HASSAN M FATTAH