AP: Report: authorities question dozens of Asian workers over labor unrest in Sharjah Emirate

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/03/africa/ME-GEN-Emirates-Labor-Unrest.php

The Associated Press
Published: April 3, 2008

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Authorities questioned dozens of Asian laborers after hundreds of workers clashed with police during a protest against their living conditions in the emirate of Sharjah, media reported Thursday.

Police "brought calm" to the al-Nahda district of Sharjah where the workers' protest took place Wednesday night at the site of a number of residential towers under construction, the state news agency WAM reported, without elaborating.

It said the workers, from the Tiger Contracting Company, climbed one of the unfinished buildings and threw stones, bricks and other construction equipment at police.

The head of Sharjah police, Brig. Gen. Humaid Mohammed al-Hudaidi, called the incident "an act of rioting" that had "nothing to do with labor disputes," WAM reported. The English language newspaper Khaleej Times reported 600 workers were arrested, but WAM did not mention arrests.

A witness, living next to the site of the protest, said the workers were angry because they are forced to live on the construction site where they are working. The witness said he saw the workers climbing the structure and shouting, but that he left when riot police arrived at the scene.

The witness spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be linked to a protest he did not participate in.

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