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+Portfolio
Home
Love you forever
Cause Street
Varanasi
Bombay
Kushti
No Swimming
Dubai Migrant
Rewha Society
The Oscar Foundation
Greenland
Muay Thai
Swim Here
New York
Iceland
Dance
Happines
Instagram
Shop
About
Contact
Documenting the everyday life of the migrant workers of Dubai, Mostly coming from
Pakistan, Afghanistan and India they make their life as comfortable as possible.
Kind and loving people.
Photos are mostly shot in Deira, Bur Dubai and Al Satwa.
Groups of up to 40 people live in these makeshift houses in the shadow of down-town Dubai
In the neighbourhood of Al-Satwa houses have been bulldozed for new development. Houses that are part of the "original" Dubai. Houses that used to belong to the locals, when this was just a small fishing town only 40 years before. It is interesting to me that the history of the original people is almost non existant in preservation of any monuments, houses, landmarks ect...
Many of the men I met there where so friendly and kind, inviting and cheerful. The told me that they where hard workers and happy about being there and having the opportunity to provide for their families back home.
This man originally escaped from Syria during the first outbreak of the war. He told me was from Aleppo, and this was in 2016 and the war there was reaching its most violent point. He figured out a glitch in the system, that if he started a construction company he could hire people from Syria as "Workers" and safe them from the violence. If people work, the Emirati government does not care where you are from.
When i showed up at his construction site he had around 60 "workers" there building a small 3 bedroom house in Al-Satwa
To this day the Emirati government does only accept a handfull of refugees, but 90% of the people in the country are foreign workers.
Here there where 12 guys from Pakistan, living in a 15 Sqr. mtr. room
Something my culture can learn from their culture is the loving nature of physical touch. Something that is very common in their culture is friends holding hands and hugging.
A woman hides behind a wall while her husband prays with his friends during Friday prayer in Bur Dubai
The Mosques in the workers neighbourhoods overflow during Friday prayer and men lay their mats on the street. - Bur Dubai old town
Bur Dubai is a small business center, filled with all kinds of small stalls selling everything from artwork to cars, sometimes in the same store. Many people coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Sri Lanka have started businesses here and actually grow them and become wealthy.
And Afghan butcher shop
A Sex-worker from Ghana, offering her services for around 5$ to the Pakistani and Indian workers living in Bur-Dubai.