Hundreds of Asian workers building a luxury development in Dubai demonstrated Monday to protest over months of unpaid wages, highlighting the plight of low-paid expatriate labourers in the oil-rich Gulf region.
The workers - mostly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - marched from the site of the huge Palm Island project to the emirate's main highway where they rallied for two hours, causing huge traffic jams.
The street action - remarkably high profile by local standards - prompted the labour ministry to clamp sanctions on the employer.
Police dispersed the protesters, who were then ferried by bus back to their living quarters - a so-called "camp" where thousands of workers live in makeshift wooden lodgings in a desert area. No violence was reported.
Hundreds of thousands of Asians work on scores of mega projects across the wealthy emirate of Dubai, often living in dire conditions and toiling long hours in temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).
One Indian protester said he and colleagues had not been paid for between five and six months, adding that their monthly wages did not exceed 600 dirhams (164 dollars). An Arab engineer working on the man-made Palm Jumeirah island taking shape off Dubai's coast put the number of protesters at around 850.
Their employer, Al-Hamed Construction, is a contractor on the Palm project, undertaken by Nakheel, one of the emirate's two biggest real estate companies. An official at the ministry of labour and social affairs who met management representatives told AFP that the row was over the salaries of 2,000 workers, unpaid for four months.
"The firm says it has several construction (sites) and thousands of labourers, and that it pays their wages by rotation," the official said.
The state WAM news agency reported later Monday that the labour ministry had given the company, jointly owned by Emiratis and Jordanians, a 24-hour ultimatum to pay the back salaries.
The ministry imposed unspecified fines on Al-Hamed Construction, which will be subjected to legal action if it does not pay up, WAM said. The company will also not be allowed to import labour for six months.
Reports of abuse and non-payment are widespread in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to just over four million people.
One such case ended in tragedy last December when an Indian worker committed suicide in Dubai because his company refused to lend him 13 dollars to see a doctor, after five months of not paying his wages.
The English-language daily Gulf News reported that dozens of workers had gathered outside the labour ministry in Dubai Sunday to file a complaint against their employer.
The workers - from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh - said they had not been paid by the Saudi-owned construction company since May and were going hungry, the newspaper added.
Another 200 workers were also protesting at non-payment of salaries outside the labour ministry in Abu Dhabi, the largest and wealthiest emirate in the seven-member UAE, according to the daily Al-Bayan.
Foreigners working in oil-rich Gulf states must have a "sponsor," a regulation which restricts their movement and puts them at the mercy of their employers.
Asian workers in Kuwait, which is also home to hundreds of thousands of workers from the Indian subcontinent, have staged a series of strikes in recent months, complaining they had not been paid wages for long periods. The government intervened and threatened action against employers if they did not pay.
Some 600 foreign construction workers, mostly Indians, went on strike in Qatar last month over non-payment of salaries and poor living conditions, ending the action after a promise the arrears would be paid in instalments.
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