Thursday, September 2, 2010

Hundreds of labourers languishing in a UAE camp have been abandoned by their employer left to live  off meagre food donations, surrounded by sewage and with no gas or electricity.

The men have not been paid in months and many look malnourished as they barely have enough to eat. They are staying at a remote camp in Al Sajaa Industrial Area, on the outskirts of Sharjah.

The  company they work for appears to have gone out of business and now grocery firms will not deliver because of unpaid bills, sewage tanks go un-emptied and electricity and water have been cut off.

Poor conditions at labour camps are not uncommon in parts of the UAE, but the sheer level of squalor at this site was particularly shocking.

When 7DAYS visited the camp yesterday, the men were crowded around a fire made from scraps of wood, cooking the few morsels they could find.

The stench of sewage filled the air.

One of them, Subhiman K Appu, said: “It is so hard to cook food using firewood. It is just too hot outside. We desperately need our pay and better living conditions. My family back home are also struggling badly.”

One of his fellow workers, Badrul Muneer, added: “Toilets are overflowing.

There is no drinking water. The garbage has not been collected for many days.

“All we want is for the government to send us back home - and to get the money that is due to us.”

Labourers struggle amid squalor
The workers, from India, Bangladesh and Nepal, said they had not been paid for up to seven months.

The only generator at the camp has run out of diesel, forcing the men to sleep in the open as it is too hot inside their cramped huts.

One worker said he had contemplated suicide.

The Indian Consulate said the men are employed by Portland Technical Marine Service, a labour supplier for construction firms.
It told 7DAYS that one of the partners in the firm has absconded while another is in Sharjah Jail over money issues.

7DAYS tried to contact Portland Technical Marine Services but none of our calls to their offices in Sharjah and Dubai were answered.

The mobile phone of one of the partners was also switched off.

See also

‘More must be done for workers’