Behind the dizzying construction boom in Dubai is an army of migrant laborers lured into a life of squalor and exploitation.Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, is an Iraqi journalist and photographer who contributes to the Guardian and has been inside the labor camps to capture the lives of the Dubai laborers.
He tells the story of men working 18 hours a day, labor camps that are ghettoes hidden from tourists, basic facilities and food, buckets for washing clothes, dinner prepared in grease-blackened pans, up to 20 men sharing a room, broken promises, passports confiscated, feelings of imprisonment and all for 450 dirhams a month (US$122.00).
To read the story and view the informative photo gallery, follow this link:
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad Visits the Impoverished Camps for the Men Building the Skyscrapers of Dubai, Guardian, 8 October 2008.
Dr Geoff Pound
Image: At the end of long days, after up to 18 hours of work, they are taken back to the camps. (Photograph courtesy of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and the Guardian from the above link)
