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SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates: In a street dining spot in Dubai’s commercial suburbs, staff methodically gather takeaways with brightly colored biryani rice, dal and bird curry for other deficient people who are desperate to eat.
It is not a charity dining room or a charity campaign, but a place to eat Indian along a busy street in Sharjah, one of the seven sheikhs of the United Arab Emirates desert.
When other kitchens close at night, Biryani Spot kicks in. Cooks collect leftover food and turn it into loose hot foods for low-paid or unemployed migrants in much of South Asia. 10 p. m. to get dinner, no questions asked.
“The current scenario is that there are many other unemployed people, many other people who suffer here because of their low wages,” food co-founder Mohammed Shujath Ali said.
“We don’t need to waste our foodArray . . . we have to give it to those who need it. “
When small businesses in the United Arab Emirates closed this spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ali and his wife were preparing to open their own. A former mechanical engineer, Ali had long dreamed of having his own restaurant, a stall where migrant staff feeding plastic and fabric factories in Sharjah’s dusty commercial domain thirteen can simply family-run Indian, Pakistani and Bengali dishes at an exceptionally reasonable price.
Instead of thwarting their plans, the pandemic-induced economic downfall created an opportunity.
Tens of thousands of people running in the shadow of Dubai’s economy lost their jobs overnight, while hotels, restaurants and families laid off their workers with low wages in reaction to the shutdown.
Not being able to gain state advantages in a country that links the prestige of their residence to their employment, many have resorted to charity to survive.
During its two months of existence, Biryani Spot has mobilized to meet the growing need for food aid in the region.
The stall serves grilled paratha bread and a variety of meat and rice dishes highly seasoned by less than five dirhams (about $1. 50) a day, and for nothing beat at night.
These reasonable or loose foods are very useful in the United Arab Emirates, a country of about nine million people with only one million Emirati.
South Asian staff, taxi drivers, cleaners, chefs and workplace staff are supplying emirates businesses, from home to Dubai’s skyscraper-filled skyscrapers and Abu Dhabi’s oil-rich skyscrapers. their enjoyed at home.
Taj al-Islam, a 50-year-old Bangladeshi car wash, has long struggled to make the end of the month, earning around $270 a month, enough to feed his five children at home. He said loose takeaways allowed him to stretch his budget. A little more.
Mohammed Shakeel, a 38-year-old Pakistani, arrived at the end of the evening to bring the remaining food to his mosque about 25 km from Dubai.
After 19 years as a service manager at a luxury car dealership, he fired in March when the virus hit. Now he knocks in vain at the company’s doorstep in search of work, feeling tired and dizzy without food.
“In any country, I would be supported if I lost a task like this, but there’s no help here,” Shakeel said, stacking packets of food.
So far, Biryani Spot’s biggest challenge is to spread the word. The sprawling neighborhood doesn’t have much pedestrian traffic. Hidden from the street, the restaurant’s small yellow sign is smoothly lost among the rows of ruined buildings and deserts.
Ali promotes loose food through regular posts on Facebook teams for residents. When other people don’t show up, pack dozens of food and take it directly to denser areas, taxi stations or offices where you know night cleaners are hungry.
He described the documents as a “small contribution” to those in need, anything that is inscribed in his religion as a Muslim.
“We are just a small company, doing our job, as every human being does in his own way,” Ali said.