Steph Deschamps / September 27, 2022
In the face of soaring inflation, free bread machines for the poorest have appeared in Dubai, a wealthy Gulf emirate where millionaires, influencers and poor migrant workers live side by side.
The city, which imports almost all of its food, has not escaped the soaring prices, a global trend exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
In front of one of the ten vending machines installed this week in supermarkets, Bigandar carefully observes the touch screen allowing him to choose between Arabic bread, sandwich bread or chapatis (Indian pancakes).
The credit card reader is not used to pay but to make donations.
A friend told me that there was free bread, so I came", tells AFP this young Nepalese who did not want to give his full name.
Like millions of Asian immigrants, he came to try his luck in the city of excess, located in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the Dubai Statistics Centre, the food price index rose by 8.75% in July, on an annual basis, while the cost of transport jumped by more than 38%.
The initiative on bread machines was initiated by the foundation of the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed ben Rashid al-Maktoum.
The idea is to reach out to disadvantaged families and workers before they come to us," director Zeïnab Joumaa al-Tamimi told AFP.
Any person in need can now get a package of four reheated rolls, in less than two minutes, just "by pressing a button", she said.
The United Arab Emirates, a rich oil state, has a population of nearly 10 million people, about 90% of whom are foreigners, middle-class expatriates and mostly poor workers from Asia and Africa.
- Aid reserved for Emiratis -
Less rich in hydrocarbons than the capital Abu Dhabi, Dubai relies on this army of workers to build skyscrapers or to support the services sector, from real estate to luxury tourism, for which it is known.
Employed as a car washer for three years, Bigandar says he is paid three dirhams (0.84 euro cents) per vehicle, and relies on tips from customers to generate 700 to 1,000 dirhams a month (between 195 and 280 euros).
"My employer covers housing and transportation, but not food," he says.
In a sign of the growing difficulties of the foreign workforce, a rare strike was held in May by delivery workers demanding better wages in the face of rising fuel prices.
In July, the authorities announced a doubling of social assistance, but only for the handful of Emirati families with incomes below 25,000 dirhams per month (about '7,000), considered to be disadvantaged households. This aid does not include foreigners.
"We are living in a particular economic situation, because of inflation and the rise in interest rates," Fadi Alrasheed, a Jordanian executive who has been an expatriate in Dubai for 20 years, told AFP.
There are many people with low salaries who, with the rising cost of living, can no longer meet all their needs," he said, welcoming the free bread initiative.
According to the latest UN report on the state of migration in the world, the United Arab Emirates is home to nearly 8.72 million migrants, mainly from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Hentley and Partners counted more than 68,000 millionaires and some 13 billionaires in Dubai, ranked the 23rd richest city in the world.