Human Resources: UAE deports Asian workers following illegal strike

Hundreds of Asian labourers working in Dubai have been deported after thousands downed tools and staged an illegal strike at the weekend over poor wages and working conditions, reports said on Monday.

The authorities in the United Arab Emirates took the decision after several thousand manual workers occupied and reportedly vandalised a building before attacking police and vehicles with stones on Saturday.

The government denounced the “barbaric behaviour” of the strikers and gave them an ultimatum to return to work or be deported without pay with their contracts cancelled and being forbidden to return.

“Hundreds of Asian workers involved in acts of vandalism have been expelled from the country after their work permits were cancelled,” media reports said, citing a top police official and adding they had been banned from coming back.

Such protests are rare in the UAE, where strike action is outlawed and workers are not allowed to form labour unions.