The UAE employs millions of expatriate manual workers in its construction industry that was, until recently, booming.

There are nearly 3m Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis in the UAE, the majority of whom are manual and construction workers, according to Human Rights Watch.

Remittances are an important source of hard cash for poorer neighbouring countries, and thousands of families depend on a male relative’s wages for food, housing and education.

Conditions and pay for the workers have improved in recent years, but the global financial crisis threatens to unravel progress made in UAE labour reforms.

Though manual workers only earn 3 to 5 dirhams an hour, they make up the largest cost for construction companies and are the easiest to let go due to the absence of employment protection.

With debt markets parched and the price of oil tumbling, many projects will be delayed or cancelled, and experts say even government-affiliated projects are in some cases in danger.

The problem is particularly acute in Dubai, the previously booming commercial hub of the UAE. It is weighed down by the large debts of the government and state-affiliated companies.

On the outskirts of the city, far from the glass and stainless steel of the emirate’s banks and hotels, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers return home to Sonapur - a sprawling ghetto of labour camps.

The drab, prison-like buildings house more than 100,000 blue collar servants and workers.

Wet work clothes are slung limply over the rails, and the ground is moist with raw sewage as a result of flooding and rusty, leaking pipes.

On Fridays, their only free day, workers enjoy a game of cricket on open ground next to the labour camp.

Some workers at Sonapur - which means “Place of Gold” in Hindi - say they have already been told to either take a nearly 40 per cent pay cut or be sacked, so many have chosen to go home.

Human rights workers and labour organisations are worried that for many workers in the UAE, the situation, for the next year at least, looks bleak.