Dubai Forums Dubai Discussions Dubai General Chat

Ok, well, that's bound to be an eye-catching title.

i lived in the UAE for > ten years. i was born there, i grew up there, most of my childhood memories are based there.

i don't know if this topic has been discussed previously on this forum and if it has, excuse me (i am a new member). Why do SOME Arabs treat migrant construction workers (who are mostly South Asians) so badly? i saw this with my own eyes throughout my ten years+ of residing in the UAE. These migrant construction workers are treated worse than animals sometimes. In a number of cases, the newspapers there report that their wages are not paid properly or in full; sometimes they are physically abused (don't even get me started on what happens to some Phillipino domestic servants); they are stuffed into trucks that are surely not meant to hold that many people; they are forced to work in searing heat. They are treated pretty much worse than probably the camels owned by the local emirs.

Now i know this post is going to cause lots of controversy and problems. Most likely, someone will post on here accusing me of being one of the following: a) a Bush-lover b) Jewish c) Western d) Arab-hater e) Muslim-hater

For whatever it's worth, i am none of the above. If you disagree with my opinions, then argue me with as a proper Muslim would: with respect.

There is a saying by our beloved Prophet Muhammad (may God's peace and blessings be upon him) that [i am paraphrasing]: pay the worker before the sweat dries from his brow.

Yet again, i learn the all-important lesson that: Islam is a beautiful religion. It's we Muslims who are sometimes the worst followers. We make a mockery out of our religion's principles. i have seen the worst types of abuses levelled against some of the poorest workers in the UAE. What is their crime - that the colour of their skin is darker than others? That they work in the 50 degrees heat in order to send remittances back home to their villages in Pakistan/India/Bangladesh?

i love certain parts of the UAE. i hate how the government there treats these migrant workers, without whose sweat the beautiful buildings, hotels, indeed especially the Burj Al Arab, would never have been constructed.

Perhapes to rephrase the question.

Arabs do not hate the migrant workers. At least not the Arabs I know

The problem here is that to be perfectly frank, petro-dollars has affected the local population. In addition, the lax attitude of government towards ill treatment of workers has bred a feeling of "I can do what I want to these people and nobody will say anything"... Its true, Gulf Arabs have gotten away with alot in this regard. Well not just Gulf Arabs but all Arabs... I mean look at the migrant workers in Lebanon for example!!!

What is needed is stronger government in support of the workers. Not necessarly a Western style welfare state because that system is a proven failure (sorry guys but its true).... But rather a system where there are checks in place to prevent abuse.

It will never happen overnight but gradually things can change.

But lemmi say to the poster, we Arabs do not hate the migrant workers at all... Unless of course there are a$$wipes in every culture and so thats a different story

noor wrote:pay the worker before the sweat dries from his brow..

Wow. That is beautiful.

There are moves afoot to improve the lot of the immigrant worker and recent actions by some large groups have actually made it into the media, which is a change in itself.

There is talk of Unions and/or better representation, however it must be noted that a large numbers of these workers are recruited and managed by companies owned and operated by their own countrymen here in the UAE...

Maybe there should be a closer look at these operators as well as the contracting companies who hire their services?

Knight

noor wrote:Ok, well, that's bound to be an eye-catching title.

i lived in the UAE for > ten years. i was born there, i grew up there, most of my childhood memories are based there.

i don't know if this topic has been discussed previously on this forum and if it has, excuse me (i am a new member). Why do SOME Arabs treat migrant construction workers (who are mostly South Asians) so badly? i saw this with my own eyes throughout my ten years+ of residing in the UAE. These migrant construction workers are treated worse than animals sometimes. In a number of cases, the newspapers there report that their wages are not paid properly or in full; sometimes they are physically abused (don't even get me started on what happens to some Phillipino domestic servants); they are stuffed into trucks that are surely not meant to hold that many people; they are forced to work in searing heat. They are treated pretty much worse than probably the camels owned by the local emirs.

Now i know this post is going to cause lots of controversy and problems. Most likely, someone will post on here accusing me of being one of the following: a) a Bush-lover b) Jewish c) Western d) Arab-hater e) Muslim-hater

For whatever it's worth, i am none of the above. If you disagree with my opinions, then argue me with as a proper Muslim would: with respect.

There is a saying by our beloved Prophet Muhammad (may God's peace and blessings be upon him) that [i am paraphrasing]: pay the worker before the sweat dries from his brow.

Yet again, i learn the all-important lesson that: Islam is a beautiful religion. It's we Muslims who are sometimes the worst followers. We make a mockery out of our religion's principles. i have seen the worst types of abuses levelled against some of the poorest workers in the UAE. What is their crime - that the colour of their skin is darker than others? That they work in the 50 degrees heat in order to send remittances back home to their villages in Pakistan/India/Bangladesh?

i love certain parts of the UAE. i hate how the government there treats these migrant workers, without whose sweat the beautiful buildings, hotels, indeed especially the Burj Al Arab, would never have been constructed.

I think I mentioned this before....but anyway this is truelly something bigot Arabs in the Gulf need to address...

Dubai Knight wrote:There are moves afoot to improve the lot of the immigrant worker and recent actions by some large groups have actually made it into the media, which is a change in itself.

There is talk of Unions and/or better representation, however it must be noted that a large numbers of these workers are recruited and managed by companies owned and operated by their own countrymen here in the UAE...

Maybe there should be a closer look at these operators as well as the contracting companies who hire their services?

Knight,

That's true that some workers are managed by companies operated by their own countrymen. This has been a problem since at least the early 1980s, when construction contracts began to start rolling in. i don't think enough has been done in the past 20+ years. If the UAE wants to brand itself as a leading, advanced country [which by all external appearances it definitely IS], this is one aspect the government needs to do so much more about. In my books, a country is best judged not by how it treats its most affluent citizens, but by how it treats its most vulnerable members.

Liban wrote:Perhapes to rephrase the question.
In addition, the lax attitude of government towards ill treatment of workers has bred a feeling of "I can do what I want to these people and nobody will say anything"...

True.

Saddest part is, that's hardly Islamic. God, i wonder at us [us=Muslims] sometimes. How can we even pride ourselves on being a Muslim country when such abuses happen in our societies. These workers' abuses are a mockery of everything Islam stands for.

Well .. thats true..its not the arabs.. its the localized locals..

for most of us.. its not easy to tell who is the local and the one who got localized. for some of us.. you could identify him on the spot..

Origianl locals are normally modest and nice people.. and such people are rarely on the streets.. i have been to many of their houses and palaces and i have seen how they treat the ppl who work for them. they are good.

I agree with you when it comes to those people who got localized .. those nose-up arrogant @ssholes who i would love to kick them badly sometimes specially for the way they sometimes talk to others and they way they treat others.. i have been in many loud arguments with them just just coz i didnt like the voice tone.

For the matter of fact and i have heared from some westerners friends who are memebers here and working for construction companies about how people like Southafricans and british beat up the workers sometimes and treat them so badly..

Its not the nationality.. its not the color of the skin.. its the morals of that person..

Intimacy wrote:Well .. thats true..its not the arabs.. its the localized locals..

for most of us.. its not easy to tell who is the local and the one who got localized. for some of us.. you could identify him on the spot..

Origianl locals are normally modest and nice people.. and such people are rarely on the streets.. i have been to many of their houses and palaces and i have seen how they treat the ppl who work for them. they are good.

I agree with you when it comes to those people who got localized .. those nose-up arrogant @ssholes who i would love to kick them badly sometimes specially for the way they sometimes talk to others and they way they treat others.. i have been in many loud arguments with them just just coz i didnt like the voice tone.

For the matter of fact and i have heared from some westerners friends who are memebers here and working for construction companies about how people like Southafricans and british beat up the workers sometimes and treat them so badly..

Its not the nationality.. its not the color of the skin.. its the morals of that person..

Thanks... It's nice to read that there are still a few good people out there.

it's not aout hate or a away of treating it's an issue of those workers not knowing their labor rights my dear.
The laws here protect them more than the business woners but they need to know these laws and understand them. and if they don't use them thnr sure there will be woke upusing not hate !

firefingers wrote:it's not aout hate or a away of treating it's an issue of those workers not knowing their labor rights my dear.
The laws here protect them more than the business woners but they need to know these laws and understand them. and if they don't use them thnr sure there will be woke upusing not hate !

The problem doesn't lie with workers "not knowing their labor rights". Even if the workers know their rights, what are they going to do - go to a court and fight for their rights? Give me a break! Can you imagine a Bangladeshi, low-income, construction worker going to an Arab court infront of an Emirati judge, to fight for his labour rights against his Emirati employee? Quicker than you could say "goodbye", the Bangladeshi guy would be deported for just daring to bring a case against his Arab employee.

It's pretty simple how the 'logic' works in the UAE. If you've got a Western passport and you fall into a high-income category [bonus if you have lighter-coloured skin], you're given the red carpet treatment. If you happen to be unfortunate enough to have a passport from either India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka/Bangladesh, and you fall into the low-income category, you can kiss goodbye to any sort of rights whatsoever. The problem is with the government.