65% sympathise with jailed rioters on building site

GENERAL SYMPATHY: Sixty-five percent of those polled think the Indian workers who rioted should be released. (Getty Images)

A poll by Arabian Business has revealed widespread sympathy for the workers jailed after rioting at a construction site in the UAE.

Police arrested more than 3,000 mostly Indian workers after a dining room riot at the site in the northern emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah on Friday evening and they are being held at several prisons throughout the region.

But nearly 65 percent of people who took part in our poll on the subject said they should be released immediately because they thought their protests over low pay and poor living conditions were justified.

Indian diplomats have sent a fact-finding team to the site of the riot and have spoken to managers of the company that employs the workers and police.

Less than a quarter of respondents supported the police action and called for the ringleaders of the riot to serve a jail sentence and then be deported while another 10 percent believed they should be released from jail but deported immediately.

Only a handful of people (less than a single percentage) believed they should be sacked for misconduct but allowed to stay in the UAE.

The violence is the latest to hit construction and other working sites in the UAE, where hundreds of thousands of mostly Asian low-paid labourers are employed.

The protests, which have multiplied since last year despite a ban on public protests, have been mainly over low or withheld pay and poor living conditions.

It is thought that 65 percent of the estimated 1.5 million Indians residing in the UAE are blue-collar workers and they form the largest community in the UAE, a country where citizens make up only about 15 percent of a population of 5.6 million, according to a recent unofficial study.

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Violence the only choice
Posted by Paul, Dubai on Sunday 13 July 2008 at 13:05 UAE time


Violence by workers should not be the answer, but until the UAE allows workers to mobilise into peaceful workers unions and provide a forum for workers to air their grievances, they really have no other way of getting their voices heard. This is precisely the situation the UK was in during the 1840s with the Chartist revolts and the Peterloo Massacre. Violent worker unrest is now hardly heard of in the UK. Just a thought.

arrested workers
Posted by Pankaj, dubai, UAE on Friday 11 July 2008 at 13:05 UAE time

We always hear of workers being jailed or deported after violent protests. We NEVER hear of employers being fined, jailed or deported for poor accommodation, pay, food or working conditions.

Yes violence is never justified , but it is understandable. Indian workers are on the whole mild and peace loving but if you force them to work long hours under inhuman conditions why is any one surprised at the flare-ups ?

Is not the withholding of pay , low pay, extra long working hours , poor food and crowded and inhospitable accommodation
a kind of violence too ?

I feel the labor department needs to make more inspections and set up a simpler mechanism for workers to lodge their grievances. The Indian consulate also needs to be a lot more proactive on such issues.

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