“Higher, greater, more luxurious. If it was after Sheik Muhammad bin Rashid al Maktoum – and it is – Dubai will become the world metropolis of architectural wonders and records. This is only possible to achieve with the sweat of a gigantic labour army from abroad. Hundredthousands of these foreign workers labour on the constructionsites for very low vages, live pent-up in tiny barracks and seperate from their families for many years.”

This is a photographic documentary, made by photographer Florian Büttner, is about the everyday-life of the men with the unity-coloured overalls. The men outside the lap of luxury, who exist in the shadows of the skyscrapers.

“They have been the cheapest on the market and the ones most driven to abandon their rights to make a living. Circumstances made them to what they are in my eyes. Modern slaves. Not taken by force like in the old days, but forced by their lives in the arms of the highest bidder for human resources. From roughly 1 million people living in Dubai, around 800.000 are or were foreign workers. This is a new dimension in the history of foreign labours and shows one aspect of globalisation.”

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The workers are waiting for the bus to bring them back to the camp after a hard day of work in the heat of Dubai. Continue reading »