Red Tape Impedes Factory Workers’ Case
Hassna’a Mokhtar; 26/5/08
Court bureaucracy has further impeded the case of five Pakistani mechanics, who for five years have not been paid their salaries and are living destitute in a rundown defunct factory in south Jeddah. In order to get their case moving, the five men need a Power of Attorney (POA) to enable their lawyer to act on their behalf. However, of-ficials at the Jeddah Court refused to issue a POA, as some of the men do not have iqamas.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=110261&d=26&m=5&y=2008
Dubai’s gleaming skyscrapers conceal city’s labour abuse
Hamza Hendawi;26/5/08
The 22 men in “trailer 10″ work the morning shift at a construction site, then take turns shopping, cooking and cleaning. They pray together. When one returns to India on leave, he carries family presents and cash for the others. “We all come from the Punjab” in northern India, said Pavinder Singh, a 42-year-old carpenter from the trailer in a camp that houses about 3,000 workers on the desert outskirts of Dubai. “But what makes us like a family is what we have to endure here together.” Dubai’s astonishing building boom, which has made it one of the world’s fastest-growing cities, has been fuelled by the labour of about 700,000 foreigners - almost all from poor, rural villages in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The workers’ meager wages still go far in their native lands. Two or three years in Dubai could mean building a house for their family, buying a plot of land or sending chil-dren to school. Yet many men escape poverty back home only to find themselves trapped in near servitude here.
See: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=8127
Tags: Dubai, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabi, Sri Lanka, Workers