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Thousands of (migrant) construction workers in the Gulf state of Dubai (United Arab Emirates/UAE) have gone on strike over pay and working conditions.
They blocked roads and threw stones at police on last Saturday, prompting a government threat to deport rioters (BBC, 10.29).

There are an estimated 700,000 Asian migrant workers in the UAE..

..and UAE's construction boom has been built only on migrant labour

Dubai workers 'to be deported' (al-Jazeera, 10.30)

Four thousand Asian labourers in Dubai who staged strikes last weekend over poor salaries and working conditions are to be deported, a local newspaper says quoting a government official.

Several thousand manual workers recently stopped work and reportedly occupied and vandalised a building before attacking police and vehicles with stones.

Humaid bin Deemas, a senior official from the labour ministry, told the Emarat Al-Youm newspaper on Tueday there would be a "deportation of 4,000 labourers who went on strike and committed  acts of vandalism".

"The appropriate bodies have been contacted to carry out the necessary measures (for their deportation)," bin Deemas said.

"The labourers do not want to work and we will not force them to."

The newspaper did not confirm when the deportations would take place.

On Sunday, the strike spread to three other areas in the city, with the local press telling of 3,100 workers being involved.

But police moved in and returned the strikers to their accommodation blocks.

'Abusive labour practices'

Such protests are rare in the UAE where strike action and the formation of unions are illegal.

But rights groups have complained at the harsh conditions many labourers are forced to endure in the UAE and across the Gulf region.

An estimated 700,000 Asians work as construction workers in the UAE, where fewer than 20 per cent of a population of four million are UAE citizens.

Predominantly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the labourers work in the region so they can send money home to their families.

 
Dubai has experienced a huge boom in its economy in recent years fuelled to a large degree by the growth of the construction sector.

In March last year, 2,500 labourers rioted at the construction site of Burj Dubai, which is to be the world's tallest building.

The incident prompted the New York-based Human Rights Watch to issue a statement calling on the UAE government to "end abusive labour practices" describing labour conditions as "less than  human".

Last November Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, the prime minister of the UAE, ordered sweeping measures to protect the rights of foreign labourers.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E608D085-1980-4F09-A645-09F503D4430E.htm

Related articles:

☞ Dubai construction workers strike (al-Jazeera, 10.29)

☞ Working for nothing (al-Jazeera, 8.16)

☞ Blood, Sweat and Tears (al-Jazeera, 8.15/incl. docu-videos)

For more updated reports:

☞ LabourStart (about the UAE)

And last but not least.. Guess who, except the rulers in the UAE, are profiting from the maximum exploitation of migrant workers there!!?? Yeah, right: the main S.K. chaebol, such as LG/GS, Hyundae, Samsung, Daewoo etc. who are the main players in the construction boom in the UAE..

Like "Burj Dubai", realized by Samsung - i.e. constructed

by thousands of migrant workers!!