Suicides shed light on darker side of Dubai's glitz...

Three weeks ago, he arrived at Dubai's Burj Khalifa at 7 a.m., clocked in and headed to where he was working on the upper reaches of the 163-storey tower. About an hour later, the 38-year-old father of one flung himself off the Burj Khalifa's 147th floor, dying instantly when he hit the 108th floor.

"I spoke to him the night before and he seemed fine," said another Indian worker, a friend and former roommate who had known him for seven years. "I still can't believe he did this."

Kannan's leap off the Burj Khalifa was the 26th known suicide by an Indian worker in the country in 2011. Last year, 113 Indians committed suicide, roughly one every three days.

The deaths have focussed fresh attention to the plight of migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates where armies of overall-clad labourers swarm over construction sites, seldom noticed by those in the plush office blocks and shopping malls. More...

Don't miss:

1. One Indian expat commits suicide every three days in the UAE... 
2. Dubious Dubai and the quest to be real... 
3. The dark, dark, dark side of Dubai... 
4. The slave workers of Dubai...
5. Glittering Dubai's see-no-evil secret...
6. Dubai, where domestic workers are sexually abused...