Poverty, unemployment and rural overpopulation are the main reasons for labor migration in Asian countries. The main destination of this migration is the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf region affiliated with the so-called GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman). There are several reasons for this.
The cultural center of the Middle East is the region of today's Egypt, Syria, Turkey Iran or Iraq. There, two civilizations, Western and Oriental, have always clashed, as well as three great religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In this region of the world, we have a rich culture with several thousand years of historical continuity. This melting pot has always been in turmoil, including today when Arab countries are flooded by a wave of anti-government revolutions and riots, and we have had for years an endless war between Israel and the Palestinians.
In the Arabian Peninsula, the situation was quite different. This vast space covered by desert with little water and an extremely harsh, hot climate was not the best place for the rapid development of civilization. Here on the sands of Arabia there have always been relatively few people, mainly a dozen or so large Bedouin tribes leading their strict nomadic lifestyle. Arabia is also a special place for followers of Islam. In 622 BCE, the Prophet Mohamad proclaimed a new religion, and Mecca is a holy city for Muslims drawing millions of pilgrims each year for the Hajj (holy pilgrimage after Ramadan). Climatically and culturally harsh, Arabia had been somewhat on the sidelines of mainstream civilization almost since Roman times. The situation changed dramatically after World War II. The collapse of the colonial empires caused many new countries to appear on the world map. New countries were created in the Persian Gulf region that had previously been mainly under the British protectorate. This region, poor in great history and statehood (for example, last year Oman celebrated its 40th anniversary as a modern state) got a huge boost thanks to oil. The rulers of the new oil-rich countries started investing in infrastructure, building their young states almost from scratch. Oil money boosted the region's development at a pace and momentum never seen before anywhere else. A great example is Dubai, which turned from a fishing village in a few decades into a cosmopolitan metropolis with modern post-modern buildings that have no counterparts anywhere in the world. A great example is the Burj Al Arab, the world's tallest hotel at 321 meters. A huge number of people were needed to realize these huge investments being built in the bare desert. Mostly laborers coming from other Asian countries. Mostly from India. These huge faceless groups of people in uniform dress still flock to the desert oil sheikhdoms for work and a better life.
Indians form a sizable diaspora in the Arabian Peninsula and are the region's main labor force. In 2008-2009, there were about 6 million Indians in the entire GCC. They come mainly from the southern, poor and backward province of Kerala. Most of them, about 2.5 million, live in the Emirates, where they make up almost 32% of the entire Indian diaspora in the GCC, and there are three times as many native Emiratis. In Oman, where I have contact with them almost daily, there are just over half a million Indian workers. Almost all are employed in the private sector, and construction workers make up the majority of the entire Indian diaspora in the Sultanate of Oman. The situation for these people is often dire. In order to come to work in Oman they take out a huge loan of $2-3,000 for a visa and the right to work in Oman. The first year they work for free so they can pay off the debt. After that, they have to give their employer about 110 Rials (200 Euros) every year to renew their visa and right to work. The vast majority of them live in camps, where they live in simple barracks of a few dozen and work six days a week. Many of them die while working on construction sites. I often see laborers working at height without any protection, ignoring all health and safety rules. The employer always "arrests" the passports of his workers, which is illegal but a common practice in Arab countries. Without a passport, they are almost imprisoned until the end of the contract. The monthly salary of such a laborer ranges from 45 to 120 Omani Rials (82 to 220 euros). They do not have many rights, and often their rights and dignity are not respected.
The idea to photograph these people came to me in late 2009. Driving around Muscat in the evening, I noticed that after finishing work, groups of Indian laborers in uniform gray-blue outfits stand at the edge of the roads waiting for a bus to take them to the kampongs where they live. Often you can see from afar in the sheaf of car headlights their yellow construction helmets and the silver menacins in which they keep their simple food. For several months, I stopped in the evenings near the big construction sites and tried to photograph these people. Often with my interest I caused them considerable confusion. They did not understand for what purpose I was photographing them. They did not understand my interest in their plight and work. Many of them were surprised when I wanted to shake their hand with a smile after taking their picture. Such a simple universal gesture of respect, to these people was cause for confusion. In their mind, the white European stands higher in the social hierarchy, and in caste-based Indian society such situations almost never occur. I met several hundred workers whom I photographed. I arranged a photo shoot with one large group for the next day, near a large construction site of a large office building. I showed up after sunset at the agreed location, and met the workers smiling and happy, though tired from working in the heat. They seemed to me somehow different than usual. One of them, who spoke better English, said they were all very pleased with my arrival and eager to pose. They didn't expect me to really come.
Today although I have lived in Oman for four years I still see Indian laborers in their arduous work and attempt to pull themselves out of poverty. There are also still incidents of humiliation or exploitation of these people. The Muscat airport is always crowded in the evenings. This is a sizable group of laborers coming to Oman to work, as well as those leaving the country. Their work is a hugely important element in the development of the Middle East.
August 6, 2011 Muscat, Oman
The article appeared in issue 37 of "Fotografia Quarterly". w 2011
