Dubai faces gradual exodus of migrant workers

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Construction worker Bilal is in a happy mood as he takes his lunch break sitting next to an artificial lake near Dubai’s showpiece Mall of the Emirates.

But he admits anxiety about the end of his contract in one year’s time, when the 24-year-old may have to return to Bangladesh.

The shock news of Dubai’s debt crisis is not expected to spark an immediate surge in redundancies in the once-booming desert metropolis, but a gradual exodus is likely as workers’ contracts expire and the lack of new projects means they are unable to find new jobs.

Before last year’s credit crunch, Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates were estimated at the end of 2007 to have a population of 6.4 million people—of whom 5.5 million were foreigners.

More than three million were registered with the ministry of labor as workers, when Dubai was still racing to build enormous shopping centers and business districts.

But now the picture is very different. Even before state-owned Dubai World said last week that it wants to halt payments on its huge debts for at least six months, property prices were down by half and office rents by as much as two-thirds.

People from Asia, who form the majority of the construction workforce, may find their livelihoods at stake following the mothballing of hundreds of new building projects worth tens of billions of dollars.

Ferraris, Aston Martins, and Maseratis are parked less than 100 meters (yards) away from where Bilal sits by the lake on Thursday, his blue safety helmet alongside him.

There is no indication anywhere nearby of the financial crisis swirling across the city.

“No, I’m not worried” about losing my job, he says. “I have worked here for two years, our company’s agreement is for three years.”

But he concedes that not knowing where he will work when his contract expires is a source of concern.

For Indian site engineer Thomas, unemployment is already a reality.

He walked out of Thiruvananthapuram International airport in the southern Indian state of Kerala on Thursday, after 10 years in the Emirati city, with just two items of hand luggage and a bundle of clothes.

His contract had been terminated by his Dubai-based construction company after the project was hit by the economic crisis.

“I was working as a site engineer in Dubai. I’ve no other choice than return to Kerala,” 50-year-old Thomas told AFP.

“My flight was full of people returning. Sooner or later almost 80 percent of the workers will have to leave Dubai.”

He said that during his time in Dubai, where many southern Indians found work, he had sent home enough money to build a house in his village and pay for his three sisters’ weddings.

“What to do now?” he said. “I don’t have a hefty bank balance or land to support my family. I may try my luck in Saudi Arabia or Muscat.”

“Many companies in Dubai have not paid the workers for the last three months,” Thomas said.

Foreign workers in the Gulf city state often face major challenges if they have to leave. A proportion have been allowed to bring in their families, which makes life easier but causes extra upheaval if the main breadwinner loses his or her job.

An even bigger proportion of Asian workers in the UAE send some of their wages as remittances to their families back home.

Dubai security guard Pradeep, 36, has connections in the transport industry in India and believes he can find a job there if he has to.

“I can also return to my home country and work,” he said.

But his salary working in the emirate is enough for him to support his family at home. He first came to Dubai in 2003, then later returned to India to work before coming back to Dubai in early 2009.

“Job is not secure, job is not secure,” he said with a smile, slowly shaking his head. “The economy is very down.” He added that although this will not affect him immediately, it could cause him to lose his job in the future.

If this happens, Pradeep says he will leave Dubai once more.

Job security is “our main concern these days,” said Jomy, a 35-year-old Indian working in Dubai as a contractor with a company that sells apples.

Jomy’s friend Jino, also Indian, describes the economic troubles as being “industry-specific,” especially in the banking sector in which he works.

“So many industries linked to it will have a chain reaction” from banking to other sectors, he added.

The change in lifestyle can be dramatic when people have to return home.

Satheesh, a civil engineer, worked in the Gulf for 19 years, including the last two years in Dubai. Now he is back home in Kochi, Kerala.

“I was getting 200,000 rupees ($4,300) a month in Dubai. But now I’m unemployed as my company asked me to go on long leave and now it has closed down the project. The management has shelved 450 Indian workers. It’s a bad time for me.”

Many unskilled foreign workers in Dubai, with no special knowledge about the crisis, are broadly worried and just hoping for the best.

But even those specializing in finance are fearful of the prospects for once-booming Dubai.

“Of course I’m worried (the economic situation) is going to affect my bonuses by the end of the year, and there might be some job losses,” said Sheraz, a Pakistani internal auditor working in Dubai for a major retail group.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty around. We don’t know what will happen next year,” the 27-year-old said. –W.G. Dunlop, Agence France-Presse F