DUBAI — With the cost of living surging,
free hot bread distribution for the poor has been introduced in
Dubai, a rich
Gulf emirate where millionaires rub shoulders with hard-working migrants.
اضافة اعلان
The city of skyscrapers soaring above the desert,
which imports almost all of its food, has been impacted by rapidly rising
consumer prices, a global trend exacerbated by
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ten vending machines were installed last week in
supermarkets, with a computer touch screen allowing people to select different
types: loaves for sandwiches, pitta bread, or flat Indian-style chapatis.
The machine has a credit card reader — for donations
not payment.
“A friend told me there was free bread, so I came,”
said Bigandar, a young man from Nepal who works at a car wash, not wanting to
give his full name.
Like millions of Asian migrants, he dreamt of making
a fortune in the UAE.
He headed for Dubai, a city that has earned a
reputation for conspicuous consumption and excess.
According to government figures from the Dubai
Statistics Center, the food price index, which tracks the monthly change in the
cost of a basket of food commodities, rose by 8.75 percent in July, year on
year.
The cost of transport has jumped by more than 38
percent.
‘Disadvantaged’
The bread machines are the
initiative of a foundation set up by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid Al-Maktoum.
“The idea is to go to disadvantaged families and
workers before they come to us,” said the foundation’s director, Zeinab Joumaa
Al-Tamimi.
Anyone in need can now get hot bread just “by
pressing a button”, she said.
The oil-rich UAE has a population of nearly 10
million people, 90 percent of them foreigners, many laborers from Asia and
Africa.
Dubai, the commercial heart of the
UAE, relies on
this army of workers to build skyscrapers and for the service sector, from real
estate to luxury tourism, on which it has built its reputation.
Bigandar, who has worked there for the past three
years, says that for each vehicle he cleans he earns three dirhams, or 81 US
cents.
Working hard and with tips from customers, he can
earn between 700 and 1,000 dirhams a month ($190–270).
“My employer covers housing and transportation, but
not food,” he said.
In a sign of the growing difficulties faced by
migrant workers, a rare strike was led in May by delivery men demanding better
wages in the face of rising fuel prices.
In July, the authorities announced the doubling of
social aid, but only for the handful of Emirati families with incomes below
25,000 dirhams per month ($6,800), considered to be disadvantaged households.
This aid program does not include foreigners.
“Because of inflation and rising interest rates,
there are many people whose wages are low and who, with the rising cost of
living, can no longer meet all their needs,” said Fadi Alrasheed, a Jordanian
businessman who has lived in Dubai for 20 years.
According to the UN World Migration Report, the UAE
is home to nearly 8.7 million migrants, mainly from India, Bangladesh, and
Pakistan.
Henley and Partners, a London-based investment
migration consultancy, estimates there are more than 68,000 millionaires and 13
billionaires in Dubai, ranking the city the 23rd richest in the world.
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