A worker from the Al Ahmadiyah Contracting and Trade company who asked not to be named because he was afraid of reprisals from the company said the men were taken Thursday and Friday night.

“Police went to their rooms and took the men who had been more outspoken during the protest and others of their co-workers just because they were in the same room. They took them the way they were dressed to sleep and did not give them time to change their clothes,” said the worker.

In the United Arab Emirates, where Dubai is one of the seven sheikhdoms that make up the oil-rich federation, construction workers live in labour camps and usually sleep eight to a room.

“One of the workers who was my friend called from India saying he had been deported together with the other men working in the same company,” he added.

Last Wednesday, more than 2,000 construction workers from the company went on a rampage, smashing company equipment, buses and machinery.

They were demanding better pay, protesting poor living conditions and asking for the right to cook their own meals instead of receiving ready-made meals by caterers which they said were not hygienic.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Labour Minister Ali Bin Abdullah Al Kaabi has said worker protests have taken a dangerous turn and the UAE will deport any worker who violates the law.

Unskilled workers in the United Arab Emirates receive between 109 and 178 dollars a month. They come mainly from India, Pakistan and China.

Under the law, they should work eight hours a day, with a maximum two hours overtime. But many workers complain they are forced to work up to 14 hours daily.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch, an independent New York- based watchdog, said that the UAE government should take immediate steps to end the abusive practices that have helped spark recent unrest by migrant workers in Dubai.