As many as 1,500 workers from the Indian sub continent went on strike and took to the streets Saturday demanding salaries that they say have gone unpaid for as long as four months.
Construction workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal gathered outside the emirate of Sharjah's Department of Labour and Social Affairs to demand back pay, improvements in living conditions and an increase in wages that run below $1 Cdn an hour.
"We are three and a half months with no salary," said a 29-year-old welder who gave only his first name, Kumar, for fear of being fired and deported. "How can we live on this?"
Police forced protesters from the streets into a nearby city park.
Around one million low-wage labourers from South Asia are providing the muscle behind a building boom that has studded the Emirates with glittering skyscrapers and shopping malls.
In the flashy emirate of Dubai, foreigners make up more than 80 per cent of the city's 1.5 million residents. Labourers brought in under strict contracts tend to live in squalid desert camps and toil in extreme heat, while wealthy expatriates enjoy some of the world's most luxurious accommodations.
Abuse of workers - especially nonpayment of wages - sparked dozens of strikes and street protests last year. The Labour Ministry has threatened to fine firms whose workers go unpaid for longer than a month.
The Emirates has been cited by Human Rights Watch and the U.S. State Department for exploiting migrant workers, including women and children. The government is eager to upgrade labour standards that have become a key issue in free trade negotiations with the United States.
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