In reply to John Gregory:
> Agreed that much of the development has been due to the low cost of the labour but the UAE has provided work for many millions of expatriates that would otherwise not have been available to them and has in turn benefited their families in their home countries. You can argue and perhaps generalise that workers rights have been ignored but it must be judged in respect of the country's development and not against our own standards which are the result of many years of progress.
Spoken like a true, long-term gulf resident.
I have heard this "excuse" for the poor treatment and payment of expat workers so many times. I too lived in the Middle East and through the course of my work there I learned that it isn't just a tiny minority that are "trapped" with their passport held by the employer, and made to work for much less, and in much worse conditions than promised prior to departure from their home country. Some people become immune to it when they've been a while and find ways to justify turning a blind eye - sometimes even taking part in the exploitation themselves.]
Construction workers still on site in 50+ Celsius, without enough water, living in squalid huts with 5 or 6 people sharing a room. Maids being beaten or raped on a regular basis. If these things were rare then I think your viewpoint holds true, but as they are much more common then many in the West could comprehend, I think it's too much of a positive spin to talk about all the benefits of employment for these people.
Yes, these workers from Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines etc are desperate due to the lack of opportunity in their home country, but that doesn't excuse massive scale exploitation by countries like UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and others.... You suggest that the poor treatment of expat workers should be put in context of the country's development. To my mind, all those wealthy Emiratis know what it means to mis-treat their staff, pay them totally awful wages and - when the fancy takes them - knock them around or worse. They also know it's wrong to hold a passport or change the T&Cs when the staff arrive in country, but it still happens on a huge scale.
There are, as you say, some positives, in terms of the money sent home to the home countries. This benefits families financially but also leaves hundreds of thousands of kids with absentee parents, busy looking after spoilt Emirati/Kuwaiti/Saudi brats. I am not sure what many of these people are paid these days, but I can tell you that a couple of years ago in Kuwait it was the norm to pay a domestic worker 60KD per month (about 150 GBP) for a 7 day week. Those same workers often sleep in what we would call a cupboard, not even having enough space to lie in bed without curling up.
Some love Dubai - I think it's a symbol of many of the things we are getting wrong in this world. I think saying "but look at all the opportunity it has provided for workers from poor countries" is ignoring the sheer scale of the appalling human rights situation and exploitation of the desperately poor in Gulf countries.
Post edited at 16:51