DUBAI, Oct 29: Hundreds of Asian labourers working in Dubai have been deported after thousands downed tools and staged an illegal strike at the weekend over poor wages and working conditions, reports said on Monday.
The authorities in the United Arab Emirates took the decision after several thousand manual workers occupied and reportedly vandalised a building before attacking police and vehicles with stones on Saturday.
The government denounced the “barbaric behaviour” of the strikers and gave them an ultimatum to return to work or be deported without pay with their contracts cancelled and being forbidden to return.
“Hundreds of Asian workers involved in acts of vandalism have been expelled from the country after their work permits were cancelled,” media reports said, citing a top police official and adding they had been banned from coming back.
Such protests are rare in the UAE, where strike action is outlawed and workers are not allowed to form labour unions.
The UAE has experienced a huge boom in its economy in recent years fuelled to a large degree by the growth of the construction sector, which employs hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.
Predominantly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the labourers travel thousands of miles to work in the Gulf so they can send money home to their families.
Responding to the demonstrations, a senior labour ministry official said the prime minister and deputy premier had put in place measures to help foreign workers.—AFP
