DUBAI: Police announce arrests of thousands of pimps, prostitutes

In a city-state that imports most of its human capital, from upper management to unskilled labor, it's no surprise that sex trafficking and forced prostitution have also flourished alongside (and sometimes inside) Dubai's luxury hotels and glittering skyscrapers.

In December 2007, however, the Dubai police responded by raiding two dozen brothels and detaining hundreds of suspects in the biggest prostitution sting to date.

At the time, Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim told the Associated Press that the Dubai government had "declared war on human trafficking."

Since then, police in Dubai have arrested 2,713 sex workers and 107 female pimps as part of an ongoing campaign against vice, according to a recent report in the Saudi-based Arab News.

EGYPT: A protest with low turnout

Despite a call for a national strike, Cairo's streets Monday were as busy as they usually are on weekdays, with workers heading to their jobs and offices and students heading to their universities. Yet dozens of riot police cars were stationed in downtown Cairo, reflecting a high sense of alert on the part of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

Barely one hundred demonstrators gathered in downtown Cairo, heeding opposition calls to make April 6 “a day of anger” nationwide in protest of poor economic conditions and political stagnation.

“I am not disappointed or desperate; the pursuit of the struggle will bear fruit one day. Change does not happen overnight, it requires accumulative work,” George Ishak, a leader of the Kefaya protest movement  told the Los Angeles Times on the sidelines of the demonstration.

LEBANON: Philippine maids just want to go home

Roxanne Beroda has been working as a housekeeper in Lebanon for nine years, enduring long hours and even longer periods of separation from her three children as she worked to pay for their education back in the Philippines. 

She has not seen her family in more than two years, and she may have to wait even longer if the current ban on sending Philippine workers to Lebanon is upheld. 

“It’s very hard, especially for me because today is my daughter's high school graduation,” she said. “I wanted to go [back to the Philippines], but I’m afraid I can’t come back [to Lebanon], that’s why I cannot go.”

The Philippine government is considering lifting the three-year ban in an effort to provide more job opportunities.

But the move has received mixed reactions from workers who resent the travel restrictions and advocacy groups concerned with their safety. 

Although the ban was originally prompted by safety concerns stemming from Israel's summer 2006 war with Hezbollah, it has prevented many Philippine workers, both legal and illegal, from visiting home out of fear they will not be allowed to return to Lebanon. 

Some advocacy groups also have come out against the measure, citing Lebanon’s political instability and widespread worker abuse at the hands of employers. 

EGYPT: A new call for national strike

Despite the Egyptian government's violent reaction last year, a group of young activists has renewed its call for a national strike next month to protest inflation,  corruption and political repression.

The opposition group calling itself the April 6 Youth Movement has called for a strike on April 6, the same day a similar call was made last year that culminated in a riot in a Delta province in which one person was killed and about 100 wounded.

The strike call was reportedly endorsed by a number of opposition parties, including the well-known Kefaya group.

Although the group's call was not heeded by significant number of Egyptians last year, it sent shock waves across the country and damaged the reputation of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

Online technology played a significant role in spreading the word; the message was propagated through  Facebook and scores of blogs. This time, opposition groups have relied on the same tools. 

The statement circulated online read:

IRAQ: Unemployment bad and getting worse

As Iraq's security situation improves, its employment situation is lagging behind, according to a report compiled by the United Nations and other, non-governmental agencies. The just-released findings indicate that unemployment in Iraq is 18%, with an additional 10% of the labor force working part time but wanting to work more.

One of the most troubling pieces of the report concerns the percentage of young men out of work: 28% of those ages 15 to 29 are unemployed.

U.S. and Iraqi military and political officials have long warned that these are the people most vulnerable to recruitment by insurgent groups if they are left without income for too long.

Women also are disproportionately out of work. Only 17% have jobs, a low number compared to neighboring countries. In Iran, 42% of women are in the labor force; in Jordan, 29%; in Kuwait, 52%.

LEBANON: Domestic workers driven to suicide

The facts are nothing short of tragic. More and more immigrant housemaids are dying every week in Lebanon. Some commit suicide or die trying to run away from their employers, an international human rights organization reported Tuesday.   

The findings of the New-York-based Human Rights Watch are appalling:

Since January 2007, at least 95 migrant domestic workers have died in Lebanon. Of these 95 deaths, 40 are classified by the embassies of the migrants as suicide, while 24 others were caused by workers falling from high buildings, often while trying to escape their employers. By contrast, only 14 domestic workers died because of diseases or health issues.

Apparently, strenuous work conditions are behind the high death toll of domestic employees, mainly women coming from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia, according to the HRW report:

Interviews with embassy officials and friends of domestic workers who committed suicide suggest that forced confinement, excessive work demands, employer abuse, and financial pressures are key factors pushing these women to kill themselves or risk their lives.

KUWAIT: Migrant workers take to the streets

An extraordinary uprising by hundreds of expatriate workers has erupted in Kuwait over the last three days. The workers, many of them from South Asia, are rebelling against their poor living conditions, staging demonstrations at various locations to demand better salaries.

In Kuwait, as in other Persian Gulf countries, laborers often remain in the shadows, silently tolerating grueling work conditions and low wages. They rarely reap the benefits of the huge profit from soaring oil prices, and they are condemned to suffer the subsequent rise in prices even as their salaries remain largely unchanged.

SAUDI ARABIA: Labor minister teaches a lesson in work ethics

The dude serving hamburgers at a fast-food restaurant in Jeddah recently was neither a Filipino nor a Pakistani but, for once, a Saudi.

And not just any Saudi; It was the labor minister himself. Ghazi Alghosaibi acted as a waiter for three hours at a fast-food restaurant last week to encourage all Saudi young men and women to accept jobs generally regarded by locals as low-level or demeaning, according to the Saudi Gazette.

Saudi Arabia relies heavily on foreign labor in the service sector and for construction work. For the last few years, however, Saudi authorities have adopted a national policy known as Saudization to encourage their nationals to participate more actively in a private sector dominated by guest workers from South and Southeast Asia.

But observers say that the policy has not been very successful.

The minister's symbolic stunt was meant to reach out to Saudi youths. According to Persian Gulf media reports, Alghosaibi drew attention to many successful businessmen and politicians who did small jobs before becoming prominent in their fields:

We should see enjoyment in all types of jobs. Hard work, endurance and enthusiasm are important factors to be developed by young Saudi job-seekers. ... They were simple men who rose to heights of fame and popularity through steady effort and hard work. Some of them worked even in restaurants while studying abroad.

Algosaibi asked for tips jokingly and kissed another waiter on the head in a gesture of appreciation.

-- Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: Saudi labor Minister Ghazi Alghosaibi, left, serves fast food at a restaurant in Jeddah. Credit: Saudi Gazette

IRAQ: Burnishing Baghdad

Since the 2003 invasion, piles of rubble and filth have become the new icons of Baghdad.

Broken sidewalks, gaping potholes, hulking neighborhood ramparts, concertina wire and other impediments have made movement through the city, either by car or on foot, slow, hazardous and demoralizing.

At last there are signs of change. This year, the Baghdad Municipality received $1 billion through the national budget for public works. Half of it is going to sidewalk and street repairs.

The city has hired thousands of independent contractors to complete small-scale projects that are beginning to dot the shattered cityscape.

With the level of violence down, pallets of paving stones lined up on some of Baghdad’s major streets have become more a more common sight than burned-out cars.

Monuments are being repaired and landscapers are restoring vegetation to traffic medians.

Much of the work is done by hand.

ABU DHABI: Moving to a better place?

They wear hard hats and rags over their faces; they hammer in the dust and, at night, they are silhouettes in the blowtorch light. They are the migrant workers turning Abu Dhabi and Dubai into metropolises of skyscrapers that uncoil from the desert sands like exotic plants of steel and glass.

These futuristic cities along the Persian Gulf in the United Arab Emirates have been criticized by human rights groups and threatened with labor strikes over the low pay and poor living conditions faced by Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and other workers from across Asia.

Responding to this pressure, the Abu Dhabi government announced this week that dormitories and apartments would be built for as many as 800,000 “limited-income workers,” including laborers, cleaners, technicians and housekeepers. An act of compassion? Partly. But the move is aimed at ensuring that nothing disrupts the frenetic pace of construction or spoils the image of a region that markets itself as a hip crossroads of globalization.

An official spokesman said the new dormitories will become cities unto themselves: “All utilities will be provided, there will be air conditioning and everything needed for decent living conditions will be available.”

Human Rights Watch and other groups have blamed the United Arab Emirates for allowing a system in which migrant workers are paid as little as $175 a month, are forced to pay high fees to recruitment agencies, have their passports confiscated and live in crowded rooms, many of them with no air conditioning, on the outskirts of cities. The sons of rich sheiks driving Bentleys and Mercedeses are as telling here as the faces of migrant workers peering from bus windows on their journeys to their living quarters far from the glamour they are building.

Jeffrey Fleishman in Abu Dhabi

Top: living quarters for Dubai's migrant workers. Credit: marketplace.publicradio.com

Bottom: An architect's sketch for a new high-rise in Abu Dhabi. Credit: bestwaytoinvest.com