Dubai migrants earn $245/month, build $2,455/night hotel rooms
Thursday, 29 November 2007
Sean Cronin
Jonson Joy gets up at 5 a.m. every day to work 13 hours on a Dubai construction site then comes home to a dormitory next to an overflowing sewage tank. He earns $245 a month and sends half to his wife and two children in India.
After less than a year on the job, he has had enough.
``Man is only a machine here,'' the 33-year-old pipe-fitter says as he trudges to his room at Sonapur, a labour camp for 50,000 workers on the outskirts of the Persian Gulf city.
Such living conditions, a falling currency and 9.0 percent inflation have triggered an exodus of labourers from Dubai and strikes by more than 22,000 workers. The protests threaten $430 billion of offices, hotels and homes as the second-largest member of the United Arab Emirates seeks to build a global finance and tourism center with cheap, imported labour.
As many as 286,000 illegal immigrants, or 7.0 percent of U.A.E. residents, left the country under an amnesty that expired Nov. 3, according to the Labor Ministry. The U.A.E., whose biggest member is Abu Dhabi, had 700,000 migrant construction workers last year, many from India.
``It will have the potential to delay projects,'' says Chris O'Donnell, chief executive officer of state-owned Nakheel PJSC, which has $60 billion of projects under way,
Last month, about 4,000 workers were arrested after four days of strikes during which 14 buses were smashed, police said. A strike by 18,000 employees of Dubai-based Arabtec Holding PJSC ended Nov. 10, the company said in a statement. CEO Riad Kamal declined to comment further.
Joy works for subcontractors on Emaar Properties PJSC's Burj Dubai, which will be the world's tallest tower, and Nakheel's Palm Island, a manmade island shaped like a palm tree where villas with private beaches sell for as much as $10 million.
From the Palm construction site he can look up at the sail- shaped Burj al-Arab. The cheapest room at the hotel costs 9,000 dirhams ($2,455) a night, comes with a 24-hour butler and a choice of 17 types of pillows. Guests arrive by chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce or helicopter.
At Sonapur, or ``city of gold'' in Hindi, Joy lives in a room with five other men, including his younger brother. There is no furniture apart from three bunk beds and a dozen buckets stacked in the corner for when the water is cut and the workers have to walk to a pipe down the road. Clothes are stored under the beds or draped over the balconies to dry.
Outside, men pick their way through sewage leaking from septic tanks as they walk to Friday prayers.
Trucks pump out the waste at night, though Joy says the noise keeps him awake. He catches the bus to work at 5:45 a.m.
``If you miss it, you lose a day's wages,'' says Joy, who asked not to disclose his employer for fear of losing his job.
Labor Minister Ali Bin Abdallah al-Kabi didn't respond to calls to his mobile phone or faxed and e-mailed questions about conditions in the camps. Police Chief Dahi Khalfan said the accommodations are ``dignified'' and meet U.A.E. standards.
Indian workers borrow as much as $3,000 to pay recruiters to find them jobs in Dubai, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a November 2006 report. Most workers won't go home until they repay the debt, the report said.
Making matters worse, some companies withhold the first two months' wages, a practice the government condemns.
``All workers must receive full wages without any deductions,'' the Labor Ministry said in a Nov. 4 statement.
Local builders have submitted a report on working conditions to the ministry, said Ahmad Saif Belhasa, chairman of the U.A.E. Contractors Association. He declined to discuss the findings other than to say wages may be adjusted for inflation.
``We need to accept these construction workers are human beings like us,'' Belhasa said. ``Every country has its own standards, and I think the conditions here are better than in their own countries.''
Joy says he earns about 900 dirhams ($245) a month, from which 200 dirhams are deducted for food and lodging. He sends about 500 dirhams to his wife. The rest is eaten up by expenses.
Joy and his brother, both Christians, pay 20 dirhams each to share a taxi for their weekly visit to church. A cup of tea costs 75 fils, or 0.75 dirham, up from 50 fils four years ago, says Joy's roommate Jayaraj, who has worked in the Gulf since 1996.
To economize, workers get their hair cut by barbers who snip and comb behind a wall at the end of Joy's street.
``They will charge you 5 dirhams for a cut,'' he says. ``It will cost you 10 dirhams in a shop.''
The decline of the dollar also has dimmed the allure of Dubai, where the dirham is pegged to the U.S. currency. The dollar has fallen 11 percent against the Indian rupee this year.
With less to show for their labours, many workers say going home may be a better bet than staying in Dubai. India's $900 billion economy expanded an average of 8.6 percent annually in the past four years, making it the second-fastest growing major economy behind China.
``I want to go back and start my own business,'' says Pundrum Kumar, 29, who installs air conditioning.
Two miles from Sonapur, at a McDonald's restaurant where he agreed to tell his story, Joy glances at the face of Ronald McDonald before eating his first ever Big Mac, part of an 18- dirham meal purchased by a reporter.
``It's funny, we drive past this place every day on the way from work but I have never come here before,'' said Joy. ``We can't afford to eat in such places.''
Bloomberg
Jonson Joy gets up at 5 a.m. every day to work 13 hours on a Dubai construction site then comes home to a dormitory next to an overflowing sewage tank. He earns $245 a month and sends half to his wife and two children in India.
After less than a year on the job, he has had enough.
``Man is only a machine here,'' the 33-year-old pipe-fitter says as he trudges to his room at Sonapur, a labour camp for 50,000 workers on the outskirts of the Persian Gulf city.
Such living conditions, a falling currency and 9.0 percent inflation have triggered an exodus of labourers from Dubai and strikes by more than 22,000 workers. The protests threaten $430 billion of offices, hotels and homes as the second-largest member of the United Arab Emirates seeks to build a global finance and tourism center with cheap, imported labour.
As many as 286,000 illegal immigrants, or 7.0 percent of U.A.E. residents, left the country under an amnesty that expired Nov. 3, according to the Labor Ministry. The U.A.E., whose biggest member is Abu Dhabi, had 700,000 migrant construction workers last year, many from India.
``It will have the potential to delay projects,'' says Chris O'Donnell, chief executive officer of state-owned Nakheel PJSC, which has $60 billion of projects under way,
Last month, about 4,000 workers were arrested after four days of strikes during which 14 buses were smashed, police said. A strike by 18,000 employees of Dubai-based Arabtec Holding PJSC ended Nov. 10, the company said in a statement. CEO Riad Kamal declined to comment further.
Joy works for subcontractors on Emaar Properties PJSC's Burj Dubai, which will be the world's tallest tower, and Nakheel's Palm Island, a manmade island shaped like a palm tree where villas with private beaches sell for as much as $10 million.
From the Palm construction site he can look up at the sail- shaped Burj al-Arab. The cheapest room at the hotel costs 9,000 dirhams ($2,455) a night, comes with a 24-hour butler and a choice of 17 types of pillows. Guests arrive by chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce or helicopter.
At Sonapur, or ``city of gold'' in Hindi, Joy lives in a room with five other men, including his younger brother. There is no furniture apart from three bunk beds and a dozen buckets stacked in the corner for when the water is cut and the workers have to walk to a pipe down the road. Clothes are stored under the beds or draped over the balconies to dry.
Outside, men pick their way through sewage leaking from septic tanks as they walk to Friday prayers.
Trucks pump out the waste at night, though Joy says the noise keeps him awake. He catches the bus to work at 5:45 a.m.
``If you miss it, you lose a day's wages,'' says Joy, who asked not to disclose his employer for fear of losing his job.
Labor Minister Ali Bin Abdallah al-Kabi didn't respond to calls to his mobile phone or faxed and e-mailed questions about conditions in the camps. Police Chief Dahi Khalfan said the accommodations are ``dignified'' and meet U.A.E. standards.
Indian workers borrow as much as $3,000 to pay recruiters to find them jobs in Dubai, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a November 2006 report. Most workers won't go home until they repay the debt, the report said.
Making matters worse, some companies withhold the first two months' wages, a practice the government condemns.
``All workers must receive full wages without any deductions,'' the Labor Ministry said in a Nov. 4 statement.
Local builders have submitted a report on working conditions to the ministry, said Ahmad Saif Belhasa, chairman of the U.A.E. Contractors Association. He declined to discuss the findings other than to say wages may be adjusted for inflation.
``We need to accept these construction workers are human beings like us,'' Belhasa said. ``Every country has its own standards, and I think the conditions here are better than in their own countries.''
Joy says he earns about 900 dirhams ($245) a month, from which 200 dirhams are deducted for food and lodging. He sends about 500 dirhams to his wife. The rest is eaten up by expenses.
Joy and his brother, both Christians, pay 20 dirhams each to share a taxi for their weekly visit to church. A cup of tea costs 75 fils, or 0.75 dirham, up from 50 fils four years ago, says Joy's roommate Jayaraj, who has worked in the Gulf since 1996.
To economize, workers get their hair cut by barbers who snip and comb behind a wall at the end of Joy's street.
``They will charge you 5 dirhams for a cut,'' he says. ``It will cost you 10 dirhams in a shop.''
The decline of the dollar also has dimmed the allure of Dubai, where the dirham is pegged to the U.S. currency. The dollar has fallen 11 percent against the Indian rupee this year.
With less to show for their labours, many workers say going home may be a better bet than staying in Dubai. India's $900 billion economy expanded an average of 8.6 percent annually in the past four years, making it the second-fastest growing major economy behind China.
``I want to go back and start my own business,'' says Pundrum Kumar, 29, who installs air conditioning.
Two miles from Sonapur, at a McDonald's restaurant where he agreed to tell his story, Joy glances at the face of Ronald McDonald before eating his first ever Big Mac, part of an 18- dirham meal purchased by a reporter.
``It's funny, we drive past this place every day on the way from work but I have never come here before,'' said Joy. ``We can't afford to eat in such places.''
Bloomberg