Tremors were felt in Dubai on Monday morning as demolition work began on an unfinished real estate project.
A thick cloud of dust rose from the former Dubai Pearl development near Media City around 11am.
Unfinished buildings in the long-abandoned project are being cleared.
Contractors using diggers and a wrecking ball have been pulling down half a dozen buildings in the area since November. Nearby residents felt tremors - which some originally thought was an earthquake.
The Pearl is located on highly valuable land adjacent to The Palm Jumeirah — which has seen a dramatic boom in property prices since the end of the pandemic.
Dubai's government owned the original land, before the development two decades ago, but it is not known what is in store for the site once cleared.
Work on the project stalled around 2011, as several investors in a complex consortium pulled out. At least 1,500 apartments and seven hotels were planned at one stage.
Two Canadian architects made global headlines last year when they proposed building an enormous resort that resembled the Moon on the Pearl site.
In September, Michael Henderson, one of the designers, told The National there were no concrete plans yet for the project, which would cost an estimated $5 billion to build.
“Within the Mena region we could see Moon being developed in either the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain or Kuwait,” he said at the time.
UAE SQUAD
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rameez Shahzad, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zawar Farid, Ghulam Shabber, Ahmed Raza, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Chirag Suri , Zahoor Khan
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
The Book of Collateral Damage
Sinan Antoon
(Yale University Press)
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