Asian workers riot in Dubai [View All]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/91C02709-1D7E-439F-B31E-F8AF2AB865EB.htm

Asian workers riot in Dubai
Wednesday 22 March 2006 7:10 PM GMT



Asian workers angered by low salaries and mistreatment have smashed cars and offices in a riot that interrupted construction of what is set to be the world's tallest skyscraper. The violence, causing an estimated $1 million in damage, illustrated the growing unrest among foreign workers who are the linchpin of Dubai's building boom.

The violence erupted on Tuesday night when some 2500 workers on the Burj Dubai tower and surrounding housing developments chased and beat security officers, then broke into temporary offices and smashed computers and destroyed about two dozen cars and construction machines, witnesses said.

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The riot was a rare outbreak of violence - but it was not the first sign of discontent among the foreign workers who form the overwhelming majority of private sector workers in most of the oil-rich countries of the Gulf.

There have been strikes in recent months in Qatar and Oman. In April, Bangladeshi workers stormed their own embassy in Kuwait, protesting against working conditions that human rights activists have denounced as "slave-like".

~snip~