Dubai’s dark side

The city of Dubai has become a major Middle Eastern commercial center.  It also has been called the Middle East’s “shopping capital.”

Moreover, the emirate is one of the world’s great transit points.  Its airport is a grand melting pot, with passengers heading to South Asia, Europe, East Asia, Africa, and America.  I recently passed through on my way to and from Afghanistan.

Dubai also offers a comfortable exile for foreigners fearful of the future of their own nations.  Many influential Afghans are thought to have moved their families to Dubai.  Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, now called Xe, recently relocated there.  The city seems to have everything that a wealthy expatriate could want.

Indeed, the emirate’s $80 billion economy is now symbolized by the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which dominates the city skyline.  Of course, Dubai suffered an embarrassing property and debt crisis late last year, which forced an even more embarrassing bail-out by the United Arab Emirates, the seven-emirate federation that includes Dubai.  The city also faces pressure from the US to clamp down on trade with Iran.  As a result, Iranian businessmen have been moving their business elsewhere.

Still, most analysts expect commercial Dubai to bounce back.  The city’s debt restructuring has gone smoothly and the emirate remains a seemingly tolerant and stable base for commercial operations.

However, there is a worrisome underside to Dubai’s prosperity.  The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against US intelligence agencies over possible collusion in the UAE’s arrest and torture of an American citizen on terrorism charges.  The UAE received even more publicity for its recent attack on BlackBerry data services.  The formal justification was national security, but the UAE acted shortly after arresting several citizens who used their BlackBerries to organize a peaceful demonstration.  The UAE may be tolerant, but it is not free.

Actually, the UAE isn’t even tolerant.  The UAE has long been famous for cracking down on Westerners who ignore conservative mores in public.  Like other countries in the region, women also face discrimination and abuse.  Human trafficking has been reported.

Most vulnerable are the foreign citizens who, as in most Gulf states, make up much of the UAE’s workforce.  Many of these 250,000 people — who lack even minimal citizenship protections — labor in difficult circumstances.  Human Rights Watch (HRW) has complained that many of them work in “less than human” conditions.  The State Department noted that “the government severely restrict[s] the rights of foreign workers.”  Amnesty International has also pointed to cases of exploitation and abuse.