Dubai, United Arab Emirates – A strike by low-wage workers at Arabtec – the construction giant building the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, a branch campus of New York University and a series of other megaprojects – has ended after police entered labour camps and immigration services issued a series of deportation notices.

United Arab Emirates security forces converged on camps operated by Arabtec on Monday, workers told Al Jazeera, and labourers continue to receive deportation orders as part of the fallout. Arabtec workers interviewed by Al Jazeera say they earn between $102-$325 per month, and send as much as they can back to their families in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and other countries.

Arabtec officials have said they were paying the workers according to their contracts. Unions and strikes by foreigners – who make up more than 90 percent of the private-sector workforce – are illegal in the UAE and across the oil-rich Gulf states.

Human rights groups liken the situation faced by workers to a form of 21st-century servitude, as labourers cannot change jobs without the permission of their sponsor and their migration status is controlled by employers.

Officials in the UAE have said workers chose to come to the Gulf because wages are better than in their home countries and working conditions have improved in the last five years, but rights groups and some labourers contend this is not true.

Al Jazeera interviewed a dozen employees working for Arabtec outside of several different labour camps across Dubai. The camps are guarded by security and our correspondent could not get inside. The names of workers have been changed to protect their identities, and Al Jazeera decided against publishing pictures of their faces.

A call to Arabtec’s media office rang unanswered Thursday, and an emailed request for comment was not returned.

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