Conditions for Abu Dhabi's migrant workers shame the west - in pictures

Construction work at a new hotel next to the Emirates Palace continues late into the night in Abu Dhabi. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

An artist's impression of the Guggenheim museum being built on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi. Photograph: PR

A computer image of the future branch of the Louvre museum being built on Saadiyat Island. Photograph: Ateliers Jean Nouvel/AP

Some migrant workers in Abu Dhabi are being paid a pittance and living in a squalid camps. Photograph: Human Rights Watch

Louvre subcontractors leaving the Saadiyat Construction Village after violence in August 2013: thousands were evacuated from the camp after workers rampaged for three days with spears, hammers and nailed planks. Photograph: Sean O'Driscoll

A Bangladeshi painter at the New York University campus being built in Abu Dhabi cuts up fruit on the floor of the windowless bedroom he shares with eight other men in the heart of Abu Dhabi's industrial zone. It was by far the worst camp visited by the Observer. Photograph: The Observer

Mohammed Arif being fitted for a new leg one year after his amputation: a charity paid for it after his employer, which builds luxury villas on Saadiyat Island, refused. Photograph: Sean O'Driscoll

Workers board buses to take them to the building sites. Photograph: Human Rights Watch

Saadiyat Island migrant workers have complained of being trapped by recruitment fees that exceed a year's salary. Photograph: Human Rights Watch

Saadiyat Island Construction Village, built to reassure the UAE's foreign partners, complete with cricket grounds and a multilingual library. Photograph: PR

A bedroom at the Saadiyat Island Construction Village: 'The only thing these men lack is room service,' according to Nabil al-Kendi, chief development officer for the Tourism Development and Investment Company. Photograph: PR

Striking Bangladeshi workers keeping watch at 2am in Saadiyat Construction Village, Abu Dhabi in May: striking is illegal in the UAE but thousands of workers from the Arabtec construction company walked out for better pay. Many were later deported. Photograph: Sean O'Driscoll