Share this contentSHARJAH, United Arab Emirates: At a highway-side restaurant in the industrial outskirts of Dubai, workers methodically assemble packaged takeout meals of biryani rice, dal and brightly colored chicken curry for people in poverty and desperate to eat.
Tens of thousands of people working in the shadows of Dubai's economy lost their jobs overnight, as hotels, restaurants and families fired their low-wage service workers in response to the lockdown.Unable to draw on state support in a country that links their residency status to their jobs, many turned to charity to survive.Over its two months of existence, Biryani Spot has mobilized to meet the area's growing need for food aid.
South Asian laborers, taxi drivers, cleaners, cooks and office workers power businesses across the emirates, home to skyscraper-studded Dubai and oil-rich Abu Dhabi. While many have returned home during the pandemic, others remained, hoping to find work to support loved ones back home. After 19 years as a service manager at a luxury car dealership, he was fired in March when the virus struck. Now he fruitlessly knocks on company doors in search of work, feeling tired and lightheaded without food.
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