Four thousand workers deported from Dubai

More than four thousand workers in Dubai, chiefly consisting of people from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, have been deported after thousands staged an illegal strike at the weekend over poor wages and working conditions.

According to reports, labour permits of the workers, involved in the violent protest outside the Jebel Ali Labour Camp have been cancelled and a life ban put on their entry to the UAE.

Humaid bin Deemas, a senior official from the labour ministry, told the Emarat Al–Youm newspaper on Tuesday there would be a "deportation of 4,000 labourers who went on strike and committed acts of vandalism".

"The appropriate bodies have been contacted to carry out the necessary measures (for their deportation)," bin Deemas said.

"The labourers do not want to work and we will not force them to."

These kinds of protests are not rare in the UAE which has experienced a huge boom in its economy in recent years by the growth of the construction sector.

Although rights groups have complained, officials take no action and the labourers are forced to endure and work in the scorching heat.

India's ambassador to the UAE, Talmiz Ahmed, told the English–language Gulf News that the matter was being "resolved amicably" and that only those charged with causing damage to public and private properties will be prosecuted.

An estimated 700,000 Asians, mostly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, work as construction workers in the UAE, where only around 20 percent of the four million population are UAE citizens.