Slavery in Dubai

slavery in Dubai

Just a little bit of a very under discussed subject ,that is slavery , I 'm against it . This is the horror that The playgrounds of the rich have been built on since the beginning of civilization. We definitely need to ween ourselves from foreign oil. All it's doing is breeding misery and death worldwide

I guess Discovery channel conveniently left the slave part out when they did a show about the Burj Dubai.



It makes since now how they are able get it done at such a quick rate.

This is an endemic problem that goes way beyond Dubai using cheap migrant labour. Why do you think that corporations use overseas labour? Because it is cheap and because there are no labour laws to protect these 'employees'. Gap, Primark, Tesco and Nike, to name but a few, all use overseas labour, and most of that labour is exploited. Little girls who should be at school gaining an education are too busy sewing sequins onto throwaway clothing lines for a tuppence a pop and as long as we buy those clothes why should the corporations stop? We all play a part in this.

We have labour and employment laws to protect us, they don't, that is why they will and always will be exploited until we stop buying crap knowing that these people are being exploited. Very simple economics at play here.

A building is different of course, different employment practices but it is a cog in the same machine. We shouldn't though assume that we are better because we have laws to protect us from exploitation. Everytime we buy a Nike shirt or Gap Jeans we are saying it is okay. It is a vicious cycle and someone has to break it. At the very least we should all be seeking out 'ethical' products and ensuring that small children are not being used to ensure that we get everything on the cheap.

thats horrific. it makes our finical problems seem pretty insignificant. all i can say is boycott dubui.

buy American.

we as citizens must educate ourselves about where our dollars go and make sure that it gets put to good use.

I am thinking about starting a peoples' campaign to boycott products made in countries with poor worker protection. I think the problem with such campaigns in the past has been their association with unions, which were clearly just pushing their own agendas.

I make those choices myself wherever possible, and I think many others would as well, given the information.

Originally posted by Grumble
I am thinking about starting a peoples' campaign to boycott products made in countries with poor worker protection. I think the problem with such campaigns in the past has been their association with unions, which were clearly just pushing their own agendas.

I make those choices myself wherever possible, and I think many others would as well, given the information.

yeah i feel you on that. i like farmers markets. i live in a small farming town (mainly tobacco and cotton) but i get all my veggies from farmers out of the back of their trucks on the weekends. the goat cheese, im not so much a fan of,

I'm with you guys ,I 've been a big proponent of knowing where products come from for just this reason. They just passed act that says food has to carry a country of origin label now ,so look at your food labels and product labels it's a start . Oh and not so much about Dubai but seriously don't by any food whether for people or pets from China,they put melamine in everything

Originally posted by invisiblewoman
Oh and not so much about Dubai but seriously don't by any food whether for people or pets from China,they put melamine in everything

I would actually extend that to not buying anything mass produced in China. On the whole it is throwaway crap. Lasts five minutes and because it is cheap we think nothing of chucking it in the land fill and going out and buying another. And so on and so forth. It is far better, in my opinion, to spend more on products that are not only built to last but can be repaired. This not only prevents unnecessary waste but also encourages investment in skills and education.

Little footsteps, but we have to join together if we can head the change required in the right direction.

All you can see is a man working very, very hard for a living.

Hamidullah earns around 450 dirhams (£70) a month as a construction worker.

Have you ever stopped to consider that $140 a month is about 10 times the income this man would be able to get in his native country?

By working in dubai, he can secure the financial status of his family. As soon as any attempt is made to limit the number of hours of work, or better the working conditions, the job security of these folks will be threatened.

I view this as a necessary evil on both sides. It is entirely wrong to call this "slavery". The only thing to be stamped out is this:

They were promised double the wages they are actually getting, plus plane tickets to visit their families once a year, but none of the men in the room had actually read their contract. Only two of them knew how to read.

And as usual, I would like to make a controversial statement. All things of great endevour such as the pyramids were built using mass, enforced labour...ie slavery. If the monuments of today can be built while allowing the men to send back money to their families, what is the harm? The conditions may be tough and brutal, but at least they allow the children of the men to eat, live and perhaps even attend school.

Originally posted by drsmooth23
thats horrific. it makes our finical problems seem pretty insignificant. all i can say is boycott dubui.

buy American.

we as citizens must educate ourselves about where our dollars go and make sure that it gets put to good use.

Easier said than done - we have become conditioned to living in a society where goods are cheap.

If everyone were to buy american (or british if like me you're from the UK) the price would skyrocket, and people would stop buying - after all, who here would be prepared to do piecework for 5 pence per piece?

Or be prepared to work for below the minimum wage?
The only people who do that are migrants (legal or illegal) working in back street sweatshops which are for the most part unregulated, and then you have the same "slave labour" occurring in your own country - which it does anyway.

[edit on 15/10/2008 by budski]

Originally posted by drsmooth23

buy American.

Great idea.. ermm.. what is it that Dubai makes that America can 'make instead'?

Originally posted by AGENT_T

Originally posted by drsmooth23

buy American.

Great idea.. ermm.. what is it that Dubai makes that America can 'make instead'?

That's a good question ,what does Dubai make? ummm....sand islands and resort hotels? I guess we make those. Slavery is a huge problem world wide,it operates the way it always has parents selling children for money, and kidnapping, or as in this case a contract for labor that turns out to be a bait and switch. I think there is a huge difference between cheap labor and being sequestered in substandard housing and being fed starvation rations,and no way way of escape or earning your way out. I found this article about Dubai but there are many countries where this happens and it happens in the US too! Not really pointing a finger at one perpetrator ,just pointing out slavery is an awful blight on all of us worldwide. We really haven't progressed beyond the bronze culturally, to bad

Ah, yes. For some of these posters, it's all ok as long as the slaves are treated just a BIT better, right?

New law: You cannot employ slave labor if you have not been a slave for a minimum of 5 years. There. Problem fixed.

reply to post by invisiblewoman


I've actually posted a few articles on the err.. 'work ethics' there.

Dubai is all about oil(obviously) and tourism now.
It's basically a huge expanding building site still ,so obviously the labour has to come plentiful and 'cost effective'.

The expertise is all 'ex-pat' and the actual work is done by people who believe they've left their country to earn a salary that can be sent home to improve their family's poverty.

Little do they know,they're buying into an illusion.
Their 'employers' finance the trip which consists of visas/police checks/flights/work permits..of which the cost is basically passed on to the labourer.

They cannot return home as passports are held by the employer until said costs are returned.

This really leaves them open for any such 'surcharges' the employer wishes to add on..
food/medical/accommodation/fines for non-attendance.

Originally posted by AGENT_T

They cannot return home as passports are held by the employer until said costs are returned.

And what i would like to know is how can we be sure the money gets to the people 'back home'? whats stopping the company from opening their mail? i guess wire transfers are better, but judging from the visual imagery of the location im guessing that isn't real easy from them to do, in addition to simply finding a wire location that serves their race without being condescending and racist about it.

yep. but when im saying dont support Dubai what i mean is dont take trips over there. if you dont like a company, dont buy crap from them. they say its impossible to not buy stuff from walmat. if thats true how have my family and I been able to avoid if for the past six years?

they KNOW their oil fields are drying up. they said, we are about to be screwed unless we make a new cash cow, IE, they are building a new hedonism.

We can build islands from sand, but take a look at the NC coast and youll see that SAND MOVES AROUND. houses are literally falling into the ocean because if its basic migratory nature.

ok, we can match sand-lands.

well, they have oil, so we must do as they tell us. wait a minute, we have oil too, off shore. I was hoping it would be further down the road before the US started drinking form these sources heavily, but if we can kill the capitol flow to their evil empire, i say do it. I weep for the aquatic life forms though.

[edit on 15-10-2008 by drsmooth23]

reply to post by drsmooth23


I agree with that and trust me I wouldn't dream of going there. The trouble with that is Dubai isn't building this for people like me .I don't know how wealthy you are but even if I did want to go I couldn't . This place is being constructed for the super wealthy . Dick Cheney has a home there ,and I can guarantee you you it's staffed with slave labor. It's a haven for for war mongering super rich dictators,who need a pretty place to hide from their victims

reply to post by invisiblewoman


oh i agree. im going to take a pretty big stab in the dark and guess that no one who regularly posts here at ATS could afford to go there. The only thing we can really do is try to spread information to the travel sector. ping travel blogs and websites, national geographic and similar places. being a broke person has its limitations, but oct14 showed us the power of the "internet+information=world wide gift basket" with its viral reach.

Originally posted by drsmooth23

We can build islands from sand, but take a look at the NC coast and youll see that SAND MOVES AROUND. houses are literally falling into the ocean because if its basic migratory nature.

I was having this conversation with one of the Dutch dredger captains when they first started building Palm Island

Then again 8 months later when their 'employers' started noticing it wasn't where they left it.
Let's say, there''l be a lot of angry rich/celebrities with very wet villas without constant attention to the matter.

'Getting the money home' is another added expense.
I had to use Western Union after a bank error and it doesn't come cheap.

Not that labourers will have that problem,with what is left at the end of each month.

reply to post by AGENT_T


I love it! I used to be a land surveyor and it is quite bothersome when your landmarks and boundaries aren't where they are supposed to be,

The town of Wrightsville beach, outside of Wilmington NC, had a major problem with that.

"In the late 1990s it became increasingly apparent that Mason's Inlet at the northernmost part of the island was drifting southward. Residents became alarmed that Shell Island Resort and other high value residences would succumb to the Inlet. For some time, the northern side of the resort had to be strengthened by sandbags, and had a noticeable tilt. The Army Corps of Engineers undertook a 6.5 million dollar contract to move the inlet 3,000 feet north. On April 15, 2002, the project was completed and Wrightsville Beach gained a sizeable amount of virgin beach on its northern side. It is highly unlikely that any further development will occur north of Shell Island Resort."

en.wikipedia.org...

People need to pay attention to how the goods they spend money on are produced. I try NOT to buy name brands because I know they are the worst exploiters.