A report out just this week from the group Human Rights Watch concludes workers putting up Dubai's soaring towers are being systematically cheated and abused, with the sheikh's government looking the other way.
Hadi Ghaemi and Sarah Leah Whitson prepared the report.
Sarah Leah: You are working in a system where you are not really free to leave your job. You actually need employers' consent to change jobs. You're working in a system where your passport is withheld. And really, if you displease your employer, you are going to find yourself on a plane right back to Sri Lanka or Bangladesh or India.
Most of the workers live in labor camps an hour outside the city in the desert, in a place called Sonapaur, which means city of gold.
There's little gold to be found here.
The men putting up the world's finest buildings live six to eight, sometimes 12, to a room, rooms smaller that the horse stalls in the Sheikh's royal stables.
When we arrived, the men said it was one of the few times outsiders with cameras had been in the camps.
And we wanted to know if his royal highness Sheikh Mohamed had ever been here.
Dr. Anwar Gargash: I cannot confirm that he has or has not.
Brian Ross: I think he would find that his horses have better living conditions than those men.
Dr. Anwar Gargash: I think that's not a fair comment.
Dr. Anwar Gargash, the one and only government official provided to speak with 20/20, says Dubai and the sheikh are doing the best they can.
Dr. Anwar Gargash: I have been to more than one labor camp in Sonapur.
Brian Ross: Would you want to live that way?
Dr. Anwar Gargash: I think that some that are bad and some that are not so bad.
Brian Ross: We were at camps this week that are described as pretty good, and they're quite squalid.
Dr. Anwar Gargash: Okay.
Brian Ross: 8, 12 men in a room, working 12 hour days.
Dr. Anwar Gargash: Okay.
Brian Ross: Is Dubai proud of that?
Dr. Anwar Gargash: No, of course not.
Brian Ross: Then why do you allow it to continue?
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