Building Towers, Cheating Workers: Exploitation of Migrant Construction Workers in the United Arab

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Dubai. A woman in burqah (full Islamic veil) passes by the window of a jeweler in the Gold Market. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. Foreign tourists relax on the beach of a five star hotel in Jumeirah Beach. Behind them apartment towers are being built to skyscraper size. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. Shoppers in the Emirates mall. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. Foreign workers in the business district. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. Foreign workers stand in queue for the company bus to take them home after their day shift. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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6: Dubai. Hand-painted sign asking foreign workers to stand in queue for the bus which will take them to construction sites. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Sarjah. Foreign workers prepare a meal in their dormitory. They are out of work, having been abandoned by their employer who has fled the country. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Housing is provided to foreign workers in an area known as Labor Camp. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. In an area known as Labour Camp, foreign workers share a small room. One of them sleeps on the floor. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. Ski resort built in what was once a sand desert. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. Foreign workers renovate the traditional Arab quarter of Bastakia. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Construction workers labor under dangerous conditions and are vulnerable to high rates of death and injury. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. A foreign worker calls home on a public telephone. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. A foreign maid pushes a pram under a billboard advertising the Jumeirah Beach apartment complex being built. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. Foreign workers wait for the company bus to take them home after their day shift. Behind them stand the Jumeirah Beach apartment complex they are helping to build. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
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Dubai. Foreign workers in the Jumeirah Beach complex they are helping to build. © 2006 Abbas/Magnum Photos 44372
Through extensive interviews with workers, government officials and business representatives, Human Rights Watch documented serious abuses of construction workers by employers in the United Arab Emirates. These abuses include unpaid or extremely low wages, several years of indebtedness to recruitment agencies for fees that UAE law says only employers should pay, the withholding of employees’ passports, and hazardous working conditions that result in apparently high rates of death and injury.