Hundreds of migrant workers in Dubai took to the streets, demanding higher wages and overtime pay from their employer, the company which built the emirate's landmark sail-shaped Gulf shore hotel.

The rally of Asian labourers employed by Dubai's development giant Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises was the first public display of labour discontent since Mideast's former boomtown was hit by the economic crisis last year, according to a report in our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News.

The labourers, now working on building an extension of a shopping mall in Dubai's Diera district and a convention centre in the city's Jebel Ali industrial zone, said their pay wasn't enough to survive on and support their families back home.

'We are demanding overtime or a raise in salaries,' said a protester from Pakistan, who gave his name as Mohammed Al Raoub. He said he earns Dh700 dirhams (around BD72) a month and has not been paid overtime for a while.