Eight years ago, my spouse and I decided to visit Dubai by spending three days on our way to visit our kids in the UK. It was during the Ramadan and we had gotten a very good deal on a nice hotel room with balconies on two sides and a view of the Gulf albeit from a distance.
What struck me on the very first night after a day when we discovered Ramadan in a Muslim country meant restaurants did not open for lunch – the reason for the promo – was not the Vegas-in the-Middle-East template of Dubai but the lights from a giant construction site right across from the hotel where we stayed. Being someone who would wake from the thinnest streak of light, I stood no chance of sleeping through the halogen-lit night into day construction site at which what must have been scores of Asian laborers across from The Grosvenor all night.
That trip piqued my interest when I saw the title below, but the one above, as well as the captions under the couple of photographs used, are mine.
What is going on in the Middle East as regards labor treatment is worth the attention of the world.
TOLA.
The side of Dubai that they DON’T want tourists to see: Photos show desperate conditions endured by migrant labourers forced to work in 50C heat for a pittance
- Photographer Farhad Berahman’s striking photos document the lives of South Asian labourers who travel to Dubai
- They live in squalid conditions, work in searing heat and often cannot leave as their employers keep their passports
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014. 8:30 A.M. [GMT]
emotanafricana.com 
December 4, 2014
Asia & Oceania, The Middle East