Easy to pass judgment on others to cover our own flaws - lets look at the all the cheap labor we import from Mexico and other Latin countries - before we pass judgment on others. Yes, labor is cheap in Dubai and there are cases of abuse and exploitation similar to the US. However, the conditions are far worse in the countries where these laborers come from - as they are in the Latin countries. Our arrogance has blinded us and made us quick to point out flaws in others - we should not throw stones in a glass house. Doing so, we lose credibility and are viewed as hypocrites. Let’s find solutions to our problems then we will have the moral impetus to solve the problems of others. Dubai’s boom is spreading to other countries in the region as well. Both Pakistan and India are benefiting from this. Dubai recently invested $43 bil into Pakistan for infrastructure development and another $5 Bil to build a refinery – creating jobs for these people in their home countries. The magic of Dubai is spreading faster than our mantra of democracy – while we spread democracy through war and finding flaws in others, Dubai is spreading economic prosperity and opportunity. May be they have it right.

Having lived in Dubai i can confirm that only by living there for a substantial amount of time will you realise that the glossy image that the rest of the world has of Dubai is really just a facade.

Dubai is really a third-world country and it treats those from especially the Indian subcontinent as slave labour. Whilst it may be argued that economic necessity forces them to seek better prospects abroad, im sure the same wouldn't be said if it was young children (remember camel jockeys) going out and working in Dubai if it was purely economic necessity.

Yes people need to make a living, but people must also be treated with dignity and humanity - something that does not happen in Dubai.

House of cards built on sand....money will not be able to solve all problems there...

"the world is turning to china for leadership"

Right, 3 million dead in Sudan while China paid the Islamic Sharia government and sold it cheap weapons and the arab militias slay hundreds of thousands of innocents in Darfur to this very day.

The tyrants of the Middle East are just that, Tyrants. Slavery existed in Sudan until just recently official and is still practiced by many in the black markets.

As to evil America, lets sit back and think. All of Europe does business with these cutthroats and has for hundreds of years before America was born.

Getting off of their oil is top priority of course. But for some self-righteous hypocrite to come on here and blame America only is beyond any true reality.

Russia and China currently support all the tryants of the world in the darkest places.

Funny I see no one attacking them on an hourly, daily and weekly basis.

Thankfully, ABC is pointing this out. Dubai is more open than most Arab and Middle Eastern countries. It still has serious problems, but is also one of the few trying to change.

But hatred is still being preached from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen with daily propaganda of kill the Christians, the Jews, the evil West. And it is spread around the world by these thug Kings and Despots.

True, we cannot get off their blood oil fast enough.

But I noticed Bubbaaa Clinton accepted the $450,000 from the Saudi's as fast as he could say what "is" is! Then in his speech on their land accused our soldiers.

Traitor and turncoat. He cares more about money and his own prestige than he does about our Americans.

someone commented - The Middle Eastern and Asian cultures place little value on life...

The majority of Dubai's population are people not from the Middle East. Many people that live there are from the Indian Sub Continent and the rest are Westerners. Many of the people buying these very expensive homes are Westerners. These homes would not be built and bought if it was not for people that are NOT of that part of the world turning their backs on the truth to live in tax free luxury.

Do you think that most of the people of Asia and the Middle East can afford these homes? Who is really placing little value on life?

There is another country, a very big country, that was built on the backs of slaves whom never even got the chance to be con'd into believing they were getting paid. They were never paid a cent for their labor. The only answer the people of this country have for this is that it was soo long ago and it has nothing to do with them now. I don't see anyone on this message board saying that THAT culture places little value on life.

What will happen with Dubai after 100 years is that this slave labor will be swept under the rug just like our country did, in the name of progress.

Until the majority of people who are buying these homes demand the end of slave labor, it will continue. The government of Dubai is about making money. If the people who are buying these homes stop buying these homes and state the reason why, the government will stop the slave labor.

But there *ARE* a lot of the right laws in place in Dubai to protect these workers. The problem is the lax state of enforcement and a weak judiciary.

But that's a much more boring story to run, even though it applies to much more of what is broken in Dubai.

Also, people who comment on the amount of oil we buy from Dubai shoudl check their facts - that's just not happening. US buys most oil from nearby places like Canada and Mexico. But again, that's not a very interesting story, is it?

Hopefully 20/20 has assembled an informative show and not slanted towards the negative. I'll watch it with the hopes of seeing some horse racing clips.

What is the big deal? Graduate students and post-docs also work 12 to 16 hour days, 6 - 7 days a week in the United States and that is legal! People may be in graduate school / post-doc system for 10 to 20 years. They can't change jobs without their bosses permission. If the students from China will not do what they are told they are sent back to China just like the workers of Dubai! How are the slaves of Dubai treated any different than the slaves in the United States? Low income children go to school and are beaten and tortured in the United States. I don't see the difference between how the US treats their slaves than how Dubai treats their workers. This is my personal observation as a US citizen born and raised in the United States. Step down from your holy mound 20/20 and look at the United States

This story is a good start. ABC's next series should be covering the 2 million children in slave labor in India, or the thousands of children, some on 5 or 6 years old, working in mines in Africa. Mines that do very well financially, selling copper and other minerals that go into electronic goods like one's cell phone. The BBC is already there and reporting on it. Those stories will make you cry. I wish the U.S. media would care less about reporting on Hollywood weddings and more about what's really going on in the rest of the world.

As an ex-pat in Dubai I ate evening Iftar dinners during Ramadan with workers in several compounds and looked around while there. Many a college dorm would be the same. What's missing is trees and grass, but Dubai has little of that anywhere. What did the workers want when we asked them? A mosque closer by. Life may be tough by US standards. But, please, do compare their lives here to their lives in their countries of origin. Regarding oil: Dubai's economy is 97% free of oil. The Sheikh is NOT oil rich. Scrap that stereotype.

Stupid Dubai Ruler wants Dubai to be "The Best" in the World, they to preove to everyone that high life is the way and even your toilet seats have to be comfortable or basically throw it away and get a new built by a slave. And don't forget they say H.H Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Makhtoum and so and a long title for after his name, shame for him to have his name "Mohammed" he could have atleast changed his name before comencing his visions for future of his Dubai. He has never talks about that Dubai sits on the World's largest earthquake fault lines and when there is a earthquke it rattles the whole of U.A.E at magnitude of 6.1 on richter scale.

What an insult to the people of DXB. Your telecast was short on facts and more on putting people on the spot. How did YOU ever get into DXB? You need to go back to the hometown of just one of the workers you met and see exactly what they are coming from. Then, you would see a better comparison of the "conditions" that you stated. Where are the interviews with the employers or job hunters that misinformed them on their employment? I lived in DXB for over 6 years, my father helped Sheik Mohammed's father, Sheik Rashid, build DUBAL. You have no right to degrade this man's family. My brother spent his summers, working in sandblasting cement tubes in the heat of summer along with many Indian and Pakistani people. They were hot and tired, living in basic sheltering, but so thankful to have a job. You don't realize the damage you are doing with this type of reporting. Brian Ross, you need to get out of your self-righteous attitude and into the meat of the issue. We cannot even begin to relate to this culture staying in a $1500/night hotel.

Are you kidding?!? This is NOT news. I felt that Brian Ross was really stretching to make a story. The builders of Dubai are there because even the meager wages that they earn there are far better than what they would make in their home countries. These workers are from countries like Sri Lanka and India. According to the Dept. of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka, in 2002, the average household income was 12, 803 Rs- that converts to $117.68 US dollars. In Dubai if they are making $1 per hour at $10 per day 6 days per week they are earning their national average salary in a mere 12 days! If I could earn the US average income in 12 days, I would incur some risk as well. Not to mention that working only 6 days as opposed to 7 is a luxury in countries like Sri Lanka.

The “squalid” living conditions that these workers are forced to live in are also relative. As I look at the photo, I see swamp coolers on each unit. Though I can’t see it, I am willing to wager that this housing in Dubai has indoor plumbing as well. Both of these items are an upgrade from the conditions that most Sri Lankans live in. If you want a refresher course on awful living conditions, perhaps a story on the housing provided for migrant farm workers in the USA or the housing on the Indian Reservations in this country is a place to start.

Lest we forget, the lifestyle and wealth that we enjoy in the USA was forged on the backs of the “exploited”. Not that it was right, but how dare we throw stones. Many workers during our Industrial Period, the African slaves before that, and currently the farm workers and sweat shop laborers in foreign countries are fine examples of this. Not that I haven’t benefited from all of this, I’m just pointing out that Dubai isn’t doing anything that our country isn’t doing. Yes, these foreign workers earn a pittance when compared to our economy, but it is a windfall for them when compared to their earning power in their home countries.

As for the point that the horses owned by Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al Maktoum live better than the exploited workers… to be fair, those horses probably live in nicer quarters than most middle class Americans. Perhaps this story should be reviewed on John Stossel’s “Give me a break” segment.

Please give me the email address to send in my comments.

Thanks.

According to your webcast on Dubai in general, i's a rich COUNTRY. hum... last i checked, I lived in the largest city in the UNITED ARAB EMIRATES and Dubai is the 2nd largest of this same country.

Some fact checking would be nice. Dubai is an emirate, a state if you will. that state's largest city is Dubai City. Dubai is NOT a country. infact, it is the SMALLEST state in the UAE.

Be happy you can travel here and not be shot like most countries here.

For more truths about the UAE, check out the underground blogs. Mine is one of them.

Ofer up your views on the issues we discuss.

They are building manson on a sand which will collapse when all the exploited people leave. WORLD don not buy the illusion and travel to DXB.

Thank you for exposing this Slavery that is so prevalent in the region that not only Dubai but Qatar too is guilty of.Qatar is about to host the 2006 asian Games all built by the Slaves they have brought from the nearby sub continents.What a joke that a small country with hardly an athlete of there own would host an Asian Game !
Dubai has some 5000 construction site with the intention of building a population of 20 million Rich!residents. Those who are building cannot afford to buy a home as missunderstood by some in comparing the building of NewYork by the Irish .The Irish were allowed to live in USA unlike Dubai .Shame on the Rulers of Dubai and Qatar.

Having lived in Dubai for 6 years and run an Emirati owned company, I was generally pleased with the positive view of Dubai.
Regarding the labor part of the video, the facts of the laborer living conditions were correct. However, we as Westerners must keep in mind that the wages they're paid min Dubai are many times what they would be paid in their home country. Most of those laborers work in Dubai so they can send virtually all of their earnings back to their familes. So, if the workers are there of their own free will that would be okay.

But, two very negative issues occur were raised that I 100% agree with:
first, the worker's passportds are held by their employer so they can't leave if they want to and second, in many cases their wages are withheld many months by their employers. These two issues must be addressed.

The observation by Human Rights Watch is 100 percent correct. I was in dubai for nearly 10 years. The construction workers are treated as SLAVES and their accomodationns are like STABLES. In SONAPUR, DUBAI I have see 20 to 25 persons in one room, and with only one toilet/bathroom, and also with one or no aircon.
They are payed 350 to 450 Dhs(80 to 125 $) per month(they work 12hr a day 6 days a week). If they are sick, no medication is provided, or if they take a leave due to illness 3 days salary will be cut off. So many cnstruction workers are admitted to the Govt. hospitals due to brain swelling in the summers. Many workers who cannot go back to their country commit suicide, but due to lack of insurance, thir family will not get any compensation. It is a REAL SHAME than even The Human Rights Watch cannot do anything. MAN, IT ALL HAPPENS IN A COUNTRY RULED BY DICTATORS!

I feel sorry for those workers over there!! but truly we need to pay attention the man who is in control of all these things.. my first thought was oh my god could this man truly be the anti christ..

Another story for Dubai. EMAAR PROPERTIES forbids the circulation of the 7 Days Newspaper in their properties. Can 20/20 investigate why the censorship by the Dubai government?